Posted on: Monday, January 12, 2004

Johnny Depp cast as a roguish earl of yore

By Elaine Dutka
Los Angeles Times

Johnny Depp, who appeared as a swashbuckling pirate in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean," will play another rogue — the 17th-century poet and rake John Wilmot (the earl of Rochester) in "The Libertine."

John Malkovich and Samantha Morton ("In America") also will star in the film, due to begin production outside London Feb. 23.

Adapted by Stephen Jeffreys from his own play, the movie marks the feature debut of British commercials director Laurence Dunmore.

"Libertine's" $16 million budget is close to Depp's asking price for starring in high-profile studio pictures, Variety reports.

Malkovich, who played the earl when his Steppenwolf Theatre Company staged the play in 1996, plays King Charles II this time. When told that the stage production had big-screen potential, he earmarked Depp.

Depp was eager to take on the role of Wilmot, described by Samuel Johnson as a man who "blazed out his youth and health in lavish voluptuousness." But because the movie is a period piece packed with sexual material, it took eight years to lock in the financing. Britain-based Odyssey Entertainment will handle foreign sales, but no domestic distributor has been lined up.