Billion-dollar box office star Johnny Depp will potentially star in two very different roles for Disney.
According to Deadline.com, Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil is collaborating with Disney on two new projects for him to produce and possibly star in. The first is a feature remake of the ’70s TV movie “The Night Stalker,” while the second title will deal with Paul Revere’s famed Midnight Ride. Infinitum Nihil’s Christi Dembrowski will co-produce both films.
“The Night Stalker” is based on the 1972 telepic that centered on the journalist Carl Kolchak (played by Darren McGavin), whose investigations usually ended up bringing him in contact with the supernatural. It spawned the 1974 ABC series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” and inspired a short-lived 2005 TV remake that starred Stuart Townsend and Gabrielle Union. David Kennedy will executive produce the film.
The Paul Revere film is being set up at Disney with Lee and Janet Batchler (“Batman Forever”) writing. The film sounds to be a straightforward re-telling of the Revolutionary-era patriots famous midnight ride in which he warned the Colonials about the approaching British army. Depp would play Revere.
The Oscar-nominated actor was recently heard in the animated film “Rango,” and his “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” recently topped the the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.
The actor has a busy schedule these days: His Hunter S. Thompson-inspired “The Rum Diary” will be released October 28, he’s currently shooting Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows” redo, and he’ll soon play Tonto in the Gore Verbinski-directed “The Lone Ranger.”