Johnny Depp to star in The Rum Diary

It looks like Johnny Depp is going back to bat country. Rotten Tomatoes is reporting that Depp will reprise his role as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in an upcoming film adaptation of Thompson’s book The Rum Diary. Producer Graham King has acquired the screen rights, and Bruce Robinson (Jennifer 8, How to Get Ahead in Advertising) will both adapt the book and direct the film.

Depp, who previously played Thompson in Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, will play the role of Paul Kemp, a reporter in San Juan in the 1950s, whose experiences are loosely based on Thompson’s own.

In related news, several upcoming books are revisiting the life and work of the late Thompson.

Thompson’s ex-wife Anita has written a book about her late husband entitled The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Hunter S. Thompson, and will be going on a book signing tour in August.

Meanwhile, Corey Seymour and Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner have interiewed the people involved in Thompson's life and put together an oral biography of Thompson, due out this fall.

But what does it all mean? What now? What comes next?

Related links:
Anita Thompson’s blog
Johnny Depp reading from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Gonzo.org

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