Johnny Depp has exited Barry Levinson’s mob biopic BLACK MASS after soft interest in the project at the recent Cannes Film Festival led to financiers Cross Creek and Exclusive Media, asking the actor to half his usual $20 million fee. Something he’s obviously not willing to do.
The project, which would have seen Depp as the notorious Robin Hood-like Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, is now under threat with director Levinson now on the hunt for a new lead. It’s still unclear how this will affect co-star Joel Edgerton, who was recently confirmed to play the FBI agent who was close to the organised crime figure.
The real-life character has previously inspired films with both Jack Nicholson’s role in Scorcese’s Oscar-winning THE DEPARTED and Pete Postlewthaite’s Fergie in Ben Affleck’s THE TOWN, said to have been based on the career criminal. It would also have marked Depp’s third outing as a real-life gangster following DONNIE BRASCO (playing undercover cop whose in too deep, Joseph Pistone) and PUBLIC ENEMIES (the flamboyant John Dillinger).
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
