In an article entitled “Depp Thoughts: AFI Fest salutes the prolific actor for his body of work and his newest challenging role,” Gina McIntyre of the Hollywood Reporter discusses the upcoming retrospective of Johnny Depp’s work and the reasons AFI Fest decided to honor Johnny this year. According to McIntyre, THE LIBERTINE wowed the AFI selection committee: “It was Depp’s compelling turn in [Laurence]Dunmore’s film that convinced AFI director of festivals Christian Gaines to choose the actor as the AFI Fest 2005’s sole honoree. The tribute is set to take place on Nov. 11 at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood and will feature clips from Depp’s films, the world premiere of THE LIBERTINE and a Q&A between the actor and critic/commentator/ author Richard Schickel.”

AFI’s Gaines told McIntyre, “It is really an astonishing film. It defies classification. [Johnny Depp] just puts in an astonishing performance working off a great script. We were invigorated and excited by that film and that performance,” Gaines explained. “And then we started to think about Johnny Depp and how he can straddle the line between being someone who has a filmography of risky, edgy roles, yet who is always interesting in his more mainstream roles. We liked the fact that he straddles those two worlds seemingly effortlessly.” That’s how an AFI honoree is born.

The Zone thanks emma for posting the Hollywood Reporter article on our News & Views forum: you can also read the article HERE. Thanks to DeepinDepp for the thumbnail of THE LIBERTINE poster, and to KSmith, DeepinDepp, and sleepy who have shared the poster on various Zone forums including Recent Pics and News & Views. To see a larger version of THE LIBERTINE poster, click HERE.