Johnny Depp is looking likely to play notorious Irish American Boston gangster Whitey Bulger in a biopic of the mob boss being directed by Out of the Furnace and Crazy heart director, Scott Cooper.
Many different directors have tried to bring Bulger’s story to the big screen, with Martin Scorsese doing a version of it with The Departed and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck keen on tackling the fascinating case of the man currently serving hard time for second degree murder.
According to Deadline, the flick will be based on the 2001 Dick Lehr/Gerald O’Neill New York Times bestseller Black Mass: The True Story Of An Unholy Alliance Between The FBI And The Irish Mob. The book focused on the relationship between Bulger and FBI Agent John Connolly after Bulger became an informant in order to snuff out his rival mobsters, or "whack" if ya will, and apparently he did - being implicated, but never charged with 19 murders.
Connolly is now also currently doing bread, serving 40 years himself, so it really does sound like an incredible story. Lined up to play Connolly is the superb Joel Edgerton.
Depp has played a real life mobster before in Michael Mann’s superb Public Enemies (John Dillinger), while Cooper’s last flick ‘Furnace’ is one of the most underrated of the year.
Colour us excited about this one.
