Johnny Depp Starts Working On Keith Richards Documentary Next Week, But Not For Too Long

You’ll remember earlier this week eagle-eye’d Playlist scribe Simon Dang was the first to notice reports from Serbia where Johnny Depp revealed he would be directing a documentary on his old Rolling Stones buddy, Keith Richards, a rocker who he famously, affectionately parroted for his role in “Pirates Of the Caribbean.”

Variety now chimes in and says that Depp will start working on the film next week. But what does that mean exactly? Will they start shooting soon? Unlikely. This probably means light pre-production unless Depp hands over the reigns to others in the meantime because his plate is rather full.

He is scheduled to be in Venice later this month to star alongside Angelia Jolie in director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s (“The Lives of Others”) “The Tourist,” a remake of the 2005 French romantic spy thriller, “Anthony Zimmer” starring Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal (the latter also directed).

The shoot is expected to go on for around two months (and possibly three as Depp will have to come back to the U.S. for “Alice In Wonderland” press in March) at least and then Depp will probably have the spring off before he starts work again on “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” aka ‘Pirates 4’ to be directed by Rob Marshall.

When will he start working on it in earnest and or at least directing it? (if he doesn’t find time to do so in that spring gap?). Well, recent reports suggest that Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows” may not be ready to shoot in the fall, so there’s another potential open slot (but not for too long, Emir Kusturica’s ‘Pancho Villa’ film shoots in Bosnia in February).

The untitled Keith Richards documentary will be his first picture behind the camera in over ten years. His last directorial effort, 1997’s “The Brave” starring himself and Marlon Brando was thoroughly panned at Cannes and TIFF that year and then never received proper U.S. distribution. One wonders if Depp would have loved to have shot a documentary about his late pal Hunter S. Thompson while he was still alive.