First The Rum Diary Trailer Starring Johnny Depp
Posted 08.26.11 by Ryan
Johnny Depp is one of the most in-demand actors working today, and has already appeared in two movies this year — March's CGI animated Rango and May's blockbuster sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. A third is being released this October, but before you think Depp travels from movie set to movie set, this one was shot back in 2009.
The Rum Diary is based on a novel of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson, which fictionalized the late writer's early days as a journalist living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and drinking copious amounts of rum while working for an English-language newspaper. Thompson wrote the novel in the early 1960s but it was not published until 1998. The movie took a similar path, bouncing from production company to production company since 2000, until Depp's company, Infinitum Nihil, took over the project and scheduled the movie for production in March of that year.
Depp stars as Thompson alter ego Paul Kemp, who has significantly more hair than Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas alter ego, Raoul Duke. The first trailer for the movie debuted on Entertainment Tonight, and shows that the switch from Las Vegas to San Juan hasn't slowed down the insane adventures Depp will be having.
Before watching the trailer, check out the movie's official synopsis below.
Based on the debut novel by Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Depp). Tiring of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper, The San Juan Star, run by downtrodden editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked life of the island, Paul soon becomes obsessed with Chenault (Amber Heard), the wildly attractive Connecticut-born fiancée of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart). Sanderson, a businessman involved in shady property development deals, is one of a growing number of American entrepreneurs who are determined to convert Puerto Rico into a capitalist paradise in service of the wealthy. When Kemp is recruited by Sanderson to write favorably about his latest unsavory scheme, the journalist is presented with a choice: to use his words for the corrupt businessmen's financial benefit, or use them to take the bastards down.
Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I) adapted the screenplay and directed The Rum Diary, and admitted the movie got him drinking again after years of sobriety. "We were in a place called Fajardo," Robinson told The Independent in February. "It was 100 degrees at two in the morning and very humid. Everyone's drenched in sweat. One of the prop guys goes by with a barrow-load of ice and Coronas. I said: 'Johnny, this doesn't mean anything.' And reached for a Corona. Some savage drinking took place. When I was no longer in Johnny's environment I went back to sobriety."
Next Showing: The Rum Diary opens October 28