Johnny Depp to join Bardem, Hayek, Cruz in new ‘Pancho Villa’ film?
04.29.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Emir Kusturica, a renowned director, is slowly gathering collaborators for his new film about the legendary revolutionary Pancho Villa, with a working title “Seven friends of Pancho Villa and a woman with six fingers”. The acting crew currently including Javier Bardem, Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz could soon be joined by the great Hollywood star Johnny Depp. Kusturica is soon leaving to Puerto Rico to negotiate with Depp in order to renew their collaboration after 18 years from shooting of the film “Arizona Dream.”
Kusturica spent last weekend in Venice at the wedding of the Mexican actress Salma Hayek and the French multimillionaire Francois-Henri Pinault. On this occasion, he met Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz who will have roles in his film about Pancho Villa. Shooting is planned to start until the end of this year. The script is written by Kusturica’s regular collaborator Goradan Mihic, but it is based on “The Friends of Pancho Villa”, James Carlos Blake’s fictional account of Pancho Villa’s life from the point of view of his lieutenant with a lot of true details from the Mexican Revolution.
Kusturica has been fascinated by this powerful figure from his students’ days.
“Pancho Villa is a man with an idea of justice, equality and anti-imperialism. Reasons for shooting this film are coming from the inside, as a strong feeling to show his life,” Kusturica has recently said for “Blic” and added that the film will be shot in several locations including Spain, Mexico and Serbia (Mokra Gora).
Considering the fact that the film will unites reality and fiction, it is understandable why Kusturica decided to choose Johnny Depp. Their film from 1991 “Arizona Dream” gained great success and it was awarded by the “Silver Bear” in Berlin.
“Emir is not a typical director. He is more of an ethereal one. Working with him is my best collaboration so far. I would even jump from the Eiffel Tour for him,” Johnny Depp once described his collaboration with our famous director.
