Everybody loves Johnny. That, I’ve learned, is an undeniable universal truth.

For two weeks before I left for London to meet the cast and creative team behind the film adaptation of the stage musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, everything that anyone said to me was Johnny Depp-related. I would text message a friend about dinner plans and the reply would read: “Please swipe Johnny’s water bottle for me. Want his DNA for Christmas”.

I arrived at the immigration counter at Heathrow and was interrogated by an officer with a face so crumpled and grumpy, you’d think a flock of angry sheep had fallen out of her dreams and thumped her on the head.

“What is the purpose of this visit?” she growled at me as if I had left her broken-hearted at the altar last Valentine’s, and was back to take custody of our dog. I informed her politely that I had made the trip to England to interview Johnny Depp.

I swear the previously cantankerous woman giggled like a schoolgirl, professed her undying love for Johnny, and merrily stamped my passport.

(more…)

Director Terry Gilliam is trying to figure out how to keep Heath Ledger in his last film, according to one of the late actor’s co-stars in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which Ledger was still shooting when he died last week.
“Terry’s throwing himself into the job of trying to salvage the picture,” veteran actor Christopher Plummer told People.com over the weekend.

Despite reports the director might shelve the $30 million production, Gilliam, whom Plummer described as “terribly saddened” by Ledger’s death, is “trying to work out at this moment how to continue on. Fortunately, because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people and then, using stills and I think they call it CGI.”

Ledger and Plummer left the London portion of the movie’s shoot last weekend and were due to continue filming next week in Vancouver. Plummer said, “Heath was in very high spirits,” though Plummer confirmed Ledger was ill and complaining about not being able to sleep.

As for reports that Gilliam has approached Johnny Depp to step into Ledger’s role, the actor’s rep said, “There have been no official talks, and he is currently working on ‘Public Enemies’ for Michael Mann for Universal.”

Marion Cotillard, who was nominated for an Oscar for her star turn in “La Vie en Rose,” is in negotiations to join Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in “Public Enemies,” Universal’s Depression-era crime drama being directed by Michael Mann.

An adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43,” the story follows the government’s attempt to stop the criminals John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. Depp is playing Dillinger to Bale’s famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis.

Cotillard will play Billie, Dillinger’s torch singer girlfriend.

Mann, Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman wrote the script.

Production is due to start later this winter in Chicago and other Midwest locales.

Mann and Kevin Misher are producing. Robert De Niro and his partner Jane Rosenthal, who originally optioned the book, are exec producing.

Musical grabs a cut of the foreign box office
From: Variety

“Sweeney Todd” sliced its way to the top during the weekend at the international box office with an impressive $18.7 million at 1,760 playdates in 11 markets, ending the five-week winning streak for “I Am Legend.”

With Johnny Depp having landed an Oscar nom for the pic last week, Warner Bros. saw “Sweeney” dominate via first-place launches in the U.K. with $8.7 million and in France with $4.4 million. Brits backed “Sweeney” solidly, with nearly 50% of the biz among the top five pics; in France, it topped the soph sesh of local entry “Enfin Veuve” and the launch of “No Country for Old Men”; and in Japan, it stayed in first with a 36% drop to $2.3 million.

“Sweeney,” with a beefy $10,624 per-location average, enjoyed the twin benefits of Depp’s international star power plus last week’s Academy Awards noms. With $30 million already banked offshore, the musical should wind up with an overseas take well in excess of the Stateside total, which is now at $50 million.

Rose and Jack have transformed the Hollywood star’s world

Johnny Depp has lived with long-term partner Vanessa Paradis in France for 8 years and the couple adore their two kids.

Fatherhood, says Johnny, has changed his life.

‘I wasn’t alive before,’ he admits. ‘I felt like I just wandered through 35 years in kind of a fog, then Vanessa, little Rose [8] and Jack [5] woke me up. Honestly, it was like being asleep for a long time and then waking up.’

The actor acknowledges Hollywood’s ‘insane’ and all ‘pretend’ so he enjoys the calmness of family life in Europe.

‘Being famous is kind of an occupational hazard,’ he says. ‘Once you reach a certain point, it takes a lot of money to buy a simple life. But I’ve had worse jobs. Anyone in this kind of privileged position has no right to cry about it.’ (more…)

I added some pictures to our gallery, a great thanks to In Too Depp for the scans.

GALLERY LINKS:

• Total Film (March 08)
• Radio Times (19/25 January)
• Now Magazine (January 08)
• Set #59 *Updated with untagged ones
• Set #70
• Set #71

First of all, I would like to inform that our gallery has a new layout. I was DYING to make something with that amazing Esquire pictures, and so I did. I hope you like it.

Well, I live in Brazil and here Sweeney Todd will open only in February 08! I couldn’t wait until there, so I got a copy from the movie in a ‘good’ quality last night, and made some caps from the whole movie. There’s 1468 captures, and I know it’s too much but the movie is amazing and some scenes I really couldn’t stop capping! If you haven’t see it yet, please, go and watch it. Johnny did a wonderful job, as so Helena as Miss Lovett.

Edited: I just recapped the whole movie.

Let’s stop talking:

GALLERY LINK:
- Sweeney Todd screencaptures *CONTAIN SPOILERS!*

Johnny Depp will replace Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the latest project Heath had been working on. Director Terry Gilliman hand picked Johnny for the role.

But this doesn’t mean we won’t see Heath at all. The studio is saying there’s a part of the movie in which Heath’s character falls through a magic mirror, and they may have Johnny become the new appearance of the changed character.

It’s sad that they already have to be dealing with this so soon after Heath’s death, but it’s great that such an amazing actor as Johnny Depp will be on board.

Source: Hollyscoop.com

Best Actor nominee JOHNNY DEPP reacted to his nod. “My sincere thanks to the Academy for this kind nomination,” he said. “It is both an honor and a privilege to be aligned amongst such ability. My endless gratitude also to TIM BURTON and the entire cast and crew of ‘Sweeney Todd,’ without whom, I would not be here today.”

Source: The Insider Online

I added scans from Jan/Feb issue from Makeup Artists magazine to the gallery. There’s some pictures from Johnny at Sweeney’s set.

GALLERY LINK:
Make Up Artists – Jan/Feb 08