With “The Lone Ranger” not so much riding into the sunset as being shot dead at high noon by the folks over at Disney, Johnny Depp will have to find something else to do and seems to be using the new space in his calendar to get one of the many projects he has in development moving.
While it was initially announced that Jerry Stahl (”Bad Boys II,” “Permanent Midnight“) was going to pen the remake/reboot/whatever of “The Thin Man,” Deadline reports that no script has actually been written yet and that David Koepp has now been tasked to write the movie and will go back to Dashiell Hammett‘s novel to get started.
Previously spawning six beloved films that starred William Powell and Myrna Loy, “The Thin Man” follows Nick Charles, who marries into money, becomes a charming alcoholic and teams up with his socialite wife Nora to solve a murder. So basically it’s an excuse for Depp to wear old timey clothes again and act drunk and dashing all at once. Moreover, it’s yet another opportunity for the actor to kickstart a lucrative franchise as well. So no surprise that Rob Marshall plans a “Sherlock Holmes“-esque take on the material complete with a musical number or number two. Ugh.
The project marks another assignment for Koepp in what has been a very busy 2011 for the writer/director. He’s currently readying the bike-courier thriller “Premium Rush” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a January 13, 2012 release and he’s also been riding the merry-go-round of writers on the troubled “Men In Black 3” having been brought in on two separate occasions to work on the script. If that’s not enough, he was also hired earlier this year to give the Jack Ryan reboot “Moscow” a rewrite.
The gig marks a reunion of sorts for Koepp and Depp who previously worked together on the thriller “Secret Window.” That was obviously in a much different vein (and wasn’t very good) but clearly Depp and Koepp got on. No word yet if accent-wearing John Turturro will be back this time around.
