Johnny Depp is back at work on a Hollywood feature for the first time in years, with Lionsgate releasing a first-look at the actor in Day Drinker.
Additionally, the studio announced that Manu Rios, Aron Piper, Juan Diego Botto and Anika Boyle have joined Penélope Cruz in the thriller pic from director Marc Webb now shooting in Spain.
Madelyn Cline also stars in the film, which marks a potential Hollywood comeback for Depp after controversies surrounding his messy divorce from actress Amber Heard and a U.K. court ruling that resulted in Warner Bros. axing him from the Fantastic Beasts franchise in 2020.
In recent years, Depp has appeared in films such as French period drama Jeanne du Barry and directed Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness. But unlike Day Drinker, they were not commercial plays and were made with European backing.
Rios and Piper recently starred together in Netflix’s Elite series, while Boyle played Alice Creel in the West End production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
Diego Botto’s credits include the features The Room Next Door, En Los Margenes (On the Fringe) and The Suicide Squad. In Day Drinker, a private-yacht bartender played by Madelyn Cline encounters Kelly, a mysterious, onboard guest (Depp). They soon find themselves entangled with a criminal figure (Cruz) and connected in ways no one saw coming.
Depp and Cruz previously starred alongside one another in Blow, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Murder on the Orient Express. Day Drinker is produced by Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, Adam Kolbrenner and Zach Dean, who also wrote the original screenplay, with 30WEST executive producing.
The project is the second collaboration between Lionsgate and 30WEST, who also teamed for Power Ballad, a music-themed comedy directed by John Carney and which stars Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas.
Read the full article here
