The film is being financed and produced by Alcon Entertainment’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove and will be released by Warner Bros. The film will also be produced by Straight Up Films’ Annie Marter, Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen along with David Valdes. Pfister will direct from newcomer Jack Paglen’s screenplay, which was developed with Annie Marter, with the most recent draft by Noah Oppenheim. Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are serving as executive producers. Straight Up’s Regency Boies will co-produce.

Producers are not revealing the film’s plot.

Following Transcendence, Depp will segue into the crime thriller Black Mass, about notorious Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, to be directed by Barry Levinson, with Jez Butterworth writing a new draft of the screenplay by Mark Mallouk, based on the New York Times best-seller Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill.

Filming is beginning in early summer of 2013.

The film will be produced by Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson along with John Lesher via his Le Grisbi Productions and Nigel Sinclair and Guy East’s Exclusive Media, with Cross Creek and Exclusive Media co-financing.

Depp will next be seen starring in Disney’s big screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger directed by Gore Verbinski and debuting July 3, 2013. The film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Verbinski along with Depp and Christi Dembrowski’s Infinitum Nihil banner. Infinitum Nihil’s credits also includeHugo, Dark Shadows and The Rum Diary.

Depp is represented by UTA and Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman, LLP. [Source]

In the Disney film, Depp plays Native American warrior Tonto, who rides horses quite a bit in the film. Depp grew up around horses, but said that after a long day of running them at top speed, “everything went very sideways.”

It should be noted that the big-budget film, which reunites Depp with “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, had a troubled past of its own. The production was shut down midway through filming and its release date was pushed back over and over. A crew member was also injured and a stunt diver was killed during production. Despite the injury-fraught back story, Depp was still able to laugh about his own experience.

“We were shooting at a different place in the desert where there’s these little bumps and things,” Depp, wearing layers of scarves and his signature brimmed hat, told Letterman. “And so the horse that I was on decided to jump a couple of these little obstacles. The horse was unaware that the saddle I was wearing to sit on top of it was jury-rigged, kind of faked … to give the effect that I’m riding bareback. So basically it’s not very tight on the horse. So when we came down, the saddle slipped and I went to the left and had the reins here and somehow had the wherewithal to grab the mane of the horse. All very calm for some reason, I figured that fear would kick in but it didn’t. I was waiting,” he said with a laugh.

Depp was reportedly dragged 25 yards with the horse.

“All I saw in front of my eyes were these very muscular horse legs and striations of muscles moving, this kind of death machine. One word popped into my head: Hooves. Mind the hooves.”

“So, what do you do when you’re in that position?” Letterman asked.

“Well you make a decision: Will I go with the beast until someone wrangles it or will I drop? You know, It’s a crapshoot,” the actor said.

“And what did you choose?”

“I dropped,” Depp said straight-faced. “It landed on my back, hit the deck pretty hard and the one thing that saved me was the horse’s instinct to lift his front legs and go over me, step over me. Had he not, it was coming straight down into the head.”

Eek! A world with no Johnny Depp? Not OK. And Letterman seemed to agree.

“Honest to God, where are the stunt people for heaven’s sakes? You’re Tonto! You don’t need that!” he retorted.

“Well, that’s the exact same question I asked,” Depp said. He later performed “Anything Made of Paper” with Bill Carter & the Blame on the show.

The Gore Verbinski-directed film, which also stars Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger, is set to hit theaters July 3. [Source]

Gallery Links:
– Dark Shadows Press Conference Portraits
– Warner Bros. Pictures Present The Big Pictures 2012 At CinemaCon
– CinemaCon 2012 – Day 2
– On the set of ‘The Lone Ranger’ (April 23rd, 2012)
– Johnny Deep on ”Grand Journal” – Added 3 HQs

Gallery Links:
– November 08, 2011 – Added 8 HQs
– Johnny Depp on Larry King
– GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2011 – Added 3 HQs
– August 17th, 2011
– “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” Press Conference – Added 25 HQs

It was Alice Cooper in classic mode, with a stage crowded with horror props. The curtain fell in a fiery shower of sparks as the ringmaster strolled out wearing tails with vivid red and white stripes, skull belt buckles across his waist and white spats spattered with blood. “Hello, let the show begin!” he growled.

In Los Angeles in 2011, Cooper ripped through a quick four-song set at the Revolver Golden God Awards with his original band, shortly after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This time he was with a younger five-piece band, often sharing center stage with Australian guitar virtuoso Orianthi, who was an energetic foil for Cooper in black leather and lace and platinum hair down to her shoulders.

During the riff-rocker “I’ll Bite Your Face Off,” Cooper and Orianthi spun around one another playfully, and on “Hey Stoopid,” she ignited a slippery solo as Cooper taunted her: “This ain’t your daddy talking . . . your story ain’t so shocking.”

On “Feed My Frankenstein,” Cooper was strapped to a mad scientist table amid sparks and smoke, then transformed into an oversized Alice monstrosity. It’s a persona that has lost nothing to age. The whole show was joyously decadent, cartoonish and rebelliously loud, for a standing audience ranging from first-generation fans to younger listeners finally witnessing the legend up close.

Touring in celebration of the 40th anniversary of his School’s Out album (and with a new boxed set coming next week), Cooper’s set was heavy on the catchiest hits from his first decade, which still represent his best material: “I’m Eighteen,” “Under My Wheels,” etc.

He has a way with props, cutting the air with a long rapier sword or snapping a riding crop by his leg. He had a holster for his mic and a snake slithering around his neck during “Devil’s Food,” and he swung a black cane at the crowd for a sneering “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” For 1971′s “Ballad of Dwight Fry” he was fitted into a filthy pink straightjacket. Twitching and singing on his knees, it was Alice at his melodramatic best.

Depp stepped onstage for the Doors’ “Break On Through (To the Other Side),” the first of several classic rock covers, and he remained for the rest of the show as just one of four guitarists supporting Cooper, who stood amid grave markers for late icons Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Jim Morrison and John Lennon. During a cover of the Beatles’ “Revolution,” Depp leaned into the riff Keith Richards-style as Cooper offered the peace sign, singing, “Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right!”

Orianthi ripped open Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady” on a gleaming white guitar, the first song to really show her chops, and Cooper bit into a stuttering cover of the Who’s “My Generation.”

The night, of course, ended with a celebratory version of “School’s Out.” Depp laughed as Cooper skulked around the stage in a silver snakeskin coat, tossing in a few lines from Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” as he wailed, “Teacher, leave those kids alone!” The room exploded with confetti, bubbles, streamers, feathers and balloons, finally sending fans home with their eardrums and eyeballs shaken and stirred. [Source]