, The Rum Diary)
The Rum Diary, out in theatres this Friday, is the film based on Hunter S...
"I had no aspiration to be a film director ever again in my life – I made a promise in fact, to myself, that I would never do it again. I kept the promise for, I don't know, for 17 years and then I was on vacation in Spain and I got a phone call and it was Depp. It was quite surprising – I don't know how he found me, I was in Seville. 'Have you read the Rum Diary?' I replied: 'No, never read it.' To which Johnny said: 'I'm getting one to you tomorrow.' And tomorrow the Rum Diary turns up. So I read it and he goes: 'Do you want to write it?' and I'm a screenwriter so I said: 'Yeah, sure. I'll have a go at it.' And I did, and then he called me up and said: "Well now you're going to direct it." And there was a bit of a friction over that – I mean it's almost facetious to say it but here's the world's number one film star sort of bullying me to say: 'You've got to do this.' It's extraordinarily flattering, firstly, and secondly, it was very difficult to say no to someone of his stature inside the industry. I did actually say no in the beginning but he was so confident about it and kept on about that I thought: well it's not my chops on the screen. The risk isn't mine 'cause if I fuck this up, so what? So his confidence in the material and in me having a go was the thing that kind of snapped it. It was his risk really and not mine."
"I had no aspiration to be a film director ever again in my life – I made a promise in fact, to myself, that I would never do it again. I kept the promise for, I don't know, for 17 years and then I was on vacation in Spain and I got a phone call and it was Depp."
The Rum Diary, out in theatres this Friday, is the film based on Hunter S. Thompson’s eponymously titled debut novel drawn from his experience working on a magazine in Puerto Rico in the 60s, featuring Johnny Depp and directed and written byBruce Robinson. The book, which was published in 1998, 39 years after it was first written, was accidentally discovered by Depp whilst staying at his close friend Thompson’s house in Woody Creek, Colorado. On coming across the untouched manuscripts in a downstairs room, the pair vowed there and then to publish it and produce it into a film. Whilst Thompson saw the book released, his 2005 suicide meant he would never see The Rum Diary brought to the big screen. For Depp, one to always keep his promises – he fulfilled Thompson’s last wish to blast his ashes out of a 153 ft canon to the sound of Bob Dylan’s "Mr Tambourine Man" – it was only a matter of time before The Rum Diary would be made into a film.
A long-time fan of Withnail & I director and writer Bruce Robinson, Depp had initially approached him to direct Thompson’s earlier film adaptationFear and Loathing in Las Vegas but he declined. When The Rum Diary came up Depp sought Robinson’s directorial and screenplay expertise once again, this time with successful results. And despite Robinson swearing to never enter the director’s chair again, Depp managed to persuade Robinson and bring him out of retirement.
The Rum Diary is out in theatres this Friday November 11 and exclusive images of the cast feature in the gallery.
Text by Lucia Davies
