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Hollywood is an ever-fickle creature: One minute you’re a beloved critical and commercial darling and the next minute you’re persona non grata, nothing less than glorified birdcage liner for an out-of-the-way pet shop in Hoboken, NJ. If you doubt our veracity, then look no further than the case of one of the most popular heartthrobs of the late 1980s and 1990s, Johnny Depp.
Starting his cinematic life with a bang in director Wes Craven’s 1984 classic A Nightmare On Elm Street, there was seemingly no stopping this Owensboro, Kentucky native. Within a short time, Depp found himself getting increasingly more high-profile gigs even as he strove to become a successful musician: Platoon, 21 Jump Street, Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Arizona Dream, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (his best work, in this columnists humble opinion), Ed Wood, Don Juan De Marco (in a feature role originally earmarked for River Phoenix), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Donnie Brasco and – of course – the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. This Oscar-nominee’s rise was nigh meteoric, as was his fall decades later when he was accused of physical and mental abuse by ex-wife Amber Heard. Now it looks as if the former Movieline Magazine cover boy is looking for a professional reset with an upcoming French film that’s set to land Depp on a red carpet at the fabled Cannes Film Festival.
According to our Dark Shadows fanatics over at The Hollywood Reporter, actor Johnny Depp will be winging his way to Cannes, France for the first time since 2011 to take part in the whirlwind Cannes Film Festival. Specifically, the former co-owner of The Viper Room will be on hand on May 16 for the opening film Jeanne du Barry for this year’s Festival. Depp stars in this Maïwenn-directed film as none other than King Louis XV and will then participate in the next day’s presser, an event which many in an increasingly skittish Hollywood are keeping a close eye on in order to decide whether Depp’s once bright star can be refurbished for studio movies.
So what’s the buzz on Jeanne du Barry? According to one anonymous wag and industry insider, it’s not the movie that’s really the thing in this instance: “I haven’t seen the movie, but it feels like it was a good way for him [Depp] to get back into everything.”
Johnny Depp has weathered many very public storms during his storied life and we here at Vents – the ones that want to see him tackle anew films that at least possess the spirit of 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape – wish him only the best as he continues his climb back up the ever-tenuous Hollywood ladder.
