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Writer-director Wayne Roberts sure does like saying “goodbye.” Roberts’ debut feature Katie Says Goodbye bowed at Toronto last year, and now he has set Johnny Depp to star in the indie dramedy RICHARD SAYS GOODBYE, the Tracking Board has confirmed.
Depp will play the title character, a world-weary college professor who decides to throw caution to the wind and live life to the fullest after receiving a life-changing diagnosis. Indeed, he smokes, drinks and has sex as much as he wants, and God help anyone who annoys him, because he isn’t shy about speaking his mind.
It sounds like a fun role for Depp, who isn’t afraid to play a character who’s a little “out there,” as evidenced by his turns in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Kevin Smith’s Yoga Hosers.
IM Global is fully financing Richard Says Goodbye, which will be shopped at Cannes. The company’s production head Greg Shapiro is producing with Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. CAA is handling domestic rights.
Depp will soon be seen reprising his Oscar-nominated role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. He also appears in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which 20th Century Fox will release in November. The actor also has the crime movie LAbyrinth with Forest Whitaker on the horizon.
CAA represents Depp and Roberts, who is also repped by Grandview. The news was first reported by Deadline.
Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief
