Depp leads "Rango" to top of box office

LOS ANGELES — Johnny Depp's "Rango," an animated tale about a chameleon who becomes sheriff to clean up the town of Dirt, earned $38 million to top North America's weekend box office, industry data showed Sunday.

"Rango," hailed by critics as clever and eccentric, proved in its debut weekend to be another successful pairing of Depp with director Gore Verbinski, who helmed the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.
Matt Damon's thriller "The Adjustment Bureau" debuted at number two, taking $21 million, according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations. It is based on a 1954 short story by Philip K. Dick ("Minority Report" and "Blade Runner").

Damon's character challenges his fate, which is closely managed by a team of mysterious men who do all they can to keep him on his predetermined path. Emily Blunt co-stars as Damon's love interest.

"Beastly" debuted in the third spot, with $10 million, after beastly reviews of the teen romance starring British heartthrob Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens ("High School Musical") in a modern take on Beauty and the Beast. Critics cited subpar acting and clunky dialogue.

Raunchy comedy "Hall Pass" fell from first to fourth place, taking $9 million for the tale of married guys whose wives let them have affairs. It was directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly.

Falling three spots to fifth was "Gnomeo and Juliet," which made $6.9 million, giving it a four-week total of $84 million. The G-rated animated retelling of Shakespeare's play features the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt.

Liam Neeson's thriller "Unknown" was sixth with $6.6 million in its third week. The Irishman stars as a botanist who tries to piece together his life atfer a car crash.

"The King's Speech," which last weekend won several Oscars including best film, was next with $6.5 million, giving it a total of $124 million in 15 weeks.

The British royal drama was in a virtual tie with Adam Sandler's romantic comedy "Just Go With It," which earned $6.5 million in its fourth week.

Teen heartthrobs battled for the bottom slots.
The chiseled-tummied Pettyfer stars in "I Am Number Four," which was number nine, with $5.7 million in its third week. Pettyfer plays a teenaged alien refugee hiding on Earth from evil invaders who killed his family.
Shaggy-headed Justin Bieber was next, as his "Never Say Never" concert documentary was tenth with $4.3 million. The Canadian pop star turned 17 on March 1.(AFP)

Melbourne beauty Bella Heathcote to star opposite Depp, Pitt?

Melbourne beauty Bella Heathcote has reportedly landed roles opposite two of Hollywood's hottest heartthrobs - Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp.

The former Neighbours actress is in talks to star alongside Depp in a new production from acclaimed director Tim Burton, reports the Herald Sun.

Burton, who has been developing his film 'Dark Shadows' for years, enlisted his long-time collaborator Depp.

According to Variety, Heathcote will be seen alongside Pitt in 'Cogan's Trade' this year.

Johnny Depp on green tea diet

Johnny Depp is busy losing weight drinking gallons of green tea.

The star is on the brew diet, as his character in the forthcoming film 'Dark Shadows' requires a thin and bony look.

Depp is aiming to get down to 10st so he looks as gaunt as possible, reports the Sun.

'Dark Shadows' is a vampire flick and tells the tale of bloodsucker Barnabas Collins, played by Depp.

The movie is directed by Depp''s friend and frequent collaborator Tim Burton.

Depp is propping up his green tea diet by eating plenty of "low fructose fruit" such as pineapple and strawberries.

Johnny Depp loved being ‘silly’ for new movie

LOS ANGELES: Johnny Depp enjoyed making his upcoming movie Rango as it gave him the chance to “be silly”.

The actor provides the voice for the film’s title character, with stars including Bill Nighy, Isla Fisher and Abigail Breslin also displaying their vocal talents.

The comedy is CGI-animated, with the actor’s own facial expressions providing a reference for their characters, and Johnny loved delivering his performances on a soundstage alongside his co-stars.

"I think it just gives a bunch of grownups an opportunity to be silly," he laughed.

The movie is set for release next year, and tells the tale of a chameleon that aspires to be a swashbuckling hero before finding himself stuck in a Western town plagued by bandits. Johnny felt he had a great deal in common with his reptile character, as he too sometimes wonders who he really is.

"Rango is a lizard attempting to adapt to his surroundings," the star told ET. "He's trying to figure out what he's supposed to be, like most of us in life. It's certainly like nothing I've ever done before, or any of us have ever done before."

Johnny Depp recalls meeting Paradis

Johnny Depp has described the first time that he fell in love with his eventual wife Vanessa Paradis at a Paris hotel 13 years ago.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, he explained: "I was doing a film with Roman Polanksi, The Ninth Gate, and across the room I saw this woman's back.

"I saw this neck attached to the back, and I was sort of fascinated by it. Honestly, it was a very beautiful sculptural thing. Then suddenly the back and the neck turned, and it had a face."

The pair had met several years before, and Depp revealed that the French singer asked him: "Hi, do you remember me?"

He added: "'I knew it was over - I was done. I was in big trouble from that second on."

Depp's latest movie The Tourist was released in cinemas earlier this month.

Johnny Depp 'loved exploring Venice'

Johnny Depp has revealed that he enjoyed exploring the city of Venice while filming The Tourist.

Speaking to AFP, Depp noted that he often found himself walking around the famed Italian city each night after work had wrapped.

"My experience of Venice really happened between 10pm and 2am when the streets closed and I was able to walk around and experience the poetry of Venice, the ghosts of Venice, all those wonderful dark alleys," he said.

The actor further explained that he was able to draw on the city's mystique to inform his performance in The Tourist.

He remarked: "For an actor being able to film within the confines of that magical city certainly helps.... The city's magic shone through completely."

Earlier this week, Depp insisted that he is "floored" to have been nominated for two Golden Globe awards.

Johnny Depp has no mobile phone

LOS ANGELES: Johnny Depp, who calls himself as ‘Mr. Stench’, was born to a waitress and a civil engineer in Owensboro and dropped out of high school by the age of 15. He then pursued his dream career as a rock musician with various garage bands, including ‘The Kids’ band.

He emerged as an actor with his debut film “A Nightmare in Elm Street” in 1985. Depp turned into a ‘teen idol’ with the popular Fox TV television series “21 Jump Street”. After numerous teen-oriented films, he decided to take up rightful challenging roles, thereby starred in the title role in “Edward Scissorhands” by Tim Burton.

Depp always fascinates his fans and critics by taking up unique, charming, characteristic roles in each of his films. His recent popular films include “Alice in Wonderland”, the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean” series in which he portrayed the charming “Jack Sparrow” role and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. He has won the prestigious Golden Globe Award for the Best Actor for “Sweeny Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street” and has been nominated for the Academy Awards three times and BAFTA Awards two times.
With the world going gaga over mobile phones, it comes as a surprise that Depp actually does not use cell phones and not even call when he is at home! But he says, though he doesn’t like to be reachable all time through mobile phones, Internet does fascinate him as an “interesting” form of communication. When he was queried how he would be contacted, he replied that he could be just buzzed on the Internet or something. (And what if that fails?! Try the old pigeon messenger or some other form of “interesting communication”!) Yes, it’s so strange. Well but that’s – ‘tech-free’ or may be ‘mobile-free’ – Johnny Depp for you!!

Avoid Jolie, Depp's 'Tourist' trap

What's served under a label promising first-class Champagne tastes like last night's prosecco in "The Tourist," a zero-chemistry pairing of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp that opens in theaters Friday.

Staggeringly misjudged in virtually every department, from the wannabe effervescent script to Depp's dopey hairdo, the Sony release stands as an object lesson in the perils of succumbing to the siren call of big-time Hollywood filmmaking for a foreign director with one art house hit behind him. The studio's publicity machine will work overtime to drum up some initial business, but "Tourist" will fall into a trap of its own making.

After receiving near-universal acclaim and a foreign-language Oscar for his 2006 debut feature, "The Lives of Others," a quietly riveting suspense drama set in East Germany, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who grew up partially in the US and speaks perfect English, was inundated with offers from all quarters but wanted to choose carefully. After such a long delay, for him to have finally settled on this trifling romp over the rooftops and in the canals of Venice is stupefying to say the least and will give plenty of ammunition to the small band of detractors of his earlier outing.

Embalmed in makeup and elegant gowns that puts one in mind of Loretta Young and employing a reserved English accent that allows no possibility of genuine emotional expression, Jolie plays Elise, the object of much male attention in the opening scenes, which is no surprise even though the men in question are all surveillance experts intent upon following her every move in the hope she'll lead them to her criminal lover, one Alexander Pearce. After she receives a note instructing her to take a morning train from Paris to Venice, the chase is on, and she knows it.

With every guy on board keen for Elise to sit next to them, she instead gloms on to the scruffy, rather forlorn-looking Frank Tupelo, a mild-mannered math teacher from Wisconsin. Baffled and unnerved by her attentions, Frank is thoroughly unequipped to partake in the kind of witty, insinuating dialogue expected in stories of train-bound intrigue. Not that Donnersmarck, having revamped previous scripts by the estimable Julian Fellowes and Christopher McQuarrie, has written any. But it's woefully clear from their first scene together that, not only is there nothing clicking between the stars, but that the entire enterprise is madly artificial and silly, that whatever games are being played here are not going to be fun.

Donnersmarck, along with his multitude of producers, must have dreamed that, with two of the most glamorous and best-looking stars in the business, he had a shot of making a modern Hitchcock romantic thriller along the lines of "The 39 Steps," "To Catch a Thief" and "North by Northwest." Well, dream on. No one here evinces the slightest feel for that sort of sly sophistication. Instead, we get tiresome scenes of the hapless Frank, who's presumed to be the much sought-after Alexander, being pursued by goons of a Scotland Yard contingent led by Paul Bettany and by those of a gangster tycoon (Steven Berkoff) from whom Alexander stole a fortune and who you'd believe to be Russian but for his British accent.

Least accountable of all is the growing affection Elise seems to be feeling for the ineffectual Frank. Or is she pretending? One minute she invites him into her sumptuous suite at the Danieli, the next she makes him sleep on the couch. After telling him to go home and dropping him at the airport, she then dances with him at an elegant ball. But no matter as the film manages to build nary a trace of interest in either character.

Looking puffy and unassertive, Depp never has registered less effectively in his entire film career. For Jolie's part, the nature of her role doesn't allow her to show her hand to anyone, severely limiting the extent of characterization. This is where wit and lively banter would come in handy, but this is more difficult to appropriate from old movies than is format.

Surely Donnersmarck did not set out to remake Death in Venice, but artistically, that is what has been achieved.

Johnny Depp 'doesn't plan to marry Paradis'

Johnny Depp has remarked that he does not need a marriage certificate to feel bonded with his longtime partner Vanessa Paradis.

During an interview with Extra, Depp insisted that he has never felt the urge to tie the knot.

"I never found myself needing that piece of paper," he said. "Marriage is really from soul to soul, heart to heart. You don't need somebody to say, okay you're married."

The actor admitted that he would only ever consider officially marrying Paradis if it proved to be important to his partner, but joked that he would be reluctant for his girlfriend to take his last name.

"If Vanessa wanted to get hitched, why not… But the thing is, I'd be so scared of ruining her last name. She's got such a good last name," he jested.

Depp will next star in The Tourist, which is released on December 10 in US and UK cinemas.

Depp bans phones at home

'Pirates of the Caribbean' star Johnny Depp has banned phones in his French home to ensure that private time with his family is uninterrupted.

The 47-year-old star shares a luxury home in the country with his partner Vanessa Paradis and their two children.

He makes makes sure they can relax during their stays there by cutting contact with the outside world.

"When I'm at our house in France I totally cut myself off from the rest of the world. I never have to listen to phones ringing and that's because - and Vanessa would confirm this - phones are banned from the house," Contactmusic quoted him as telling the Sun.

"We have a beautiful life and I feel that spending time in France has just calmed me down and made me stop worrying about things which aren't really important," he added.

How Angelina Jolie And Johnny Depp Met Each Other?

Hollywood filmmakers must have been eagerly waiting for the golden opportunity of bringing the two superstars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie together in a movie. However, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck became the first lucky one to cast them in his upcoming film 'The Tourist'.

It's surprising to know that these two popular stars have never met earlier before they started working together in this film. Both the stars were called together to discuss on the action thriller movie and that is when 'The Pirates Of The Caribbean' star Johnny Depp met the 'Mr and Mrs Smith' star Angelina Jolly for first time.

Usually, when two actors meet for the first time, they discuss work or their films but Jolie and Johnny bonded over their similar interest, their kids. Both of them are very close to their children and that helped them to bond well. In fact, Jolie says that she could approach Depp easily because she saw photos of his lady Vanessa Paradis and their children in his Hollywood office.

The 35-year-old actress, Jolie, is a self claimed big fan of the 47-year-old Johnny. Angelina added that she has watched Johnny Depp starrer 'Alice in Wonderland' several times along with Brad Pitt and her kids.
Their mutual admiration is sure to reflect in 'The Tourist' and we hope it becomes one of the biggest hit of 2010!

Johnny Depp Belts Out 40,000 Pounds To Protect Movie Crew From Cold Wave

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, who is currently filming the latest version of the popular franchisee 'Pirates of the Caribbean' reportedly belted out 40,000 pounds from his own pocket to purchase jackets after witnessing his crew members shivering in the freezing cold.

Depp is currently at the Pinewood Studios in Bucks and reports say that the studio has been hit by the cold wave.

It was one of the crew members at the studio who brought the incident to the media's attention, stressing on the fact that the incident made it clear that the actor has a heart of gold and is one of the best people Hollywood has ever seen. Reports suggest that Johnny Depp made sure to provide waterproof jackets to all the 500 people present on the sets of "Pirates of the Caribbean" so that they can enjoy a nice warm winter. Each waterproof cost him 80 pounds, but the actor did not think twice before lending the money from his own pocket.

Johnny Depp plays Captain Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean", a film which has broken all box office records, ranking second in the list of the highest grossing films of Hollywood. Johnny Depp has always been known for his philanthropic ways.

Johnny Depp tops entertainment power poll

Johnny Depp has been voted the world's 'Most Powerful Entertainer'.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor came top of the list, compiled by Entertainment Weekly.

Editors at the magazine cited Depp's huge popularity as a factor in his success, making him a highly bankable star who can "do anything he wants".

Depp has generated £3.72bn in movie sales through his wide variety of roles, from full-length
features to cameos and voice work.

Lady GaGa came second in the list, followed by Oprah Winfrey, Simon Cowell and Will Smith. Robert Downey Jr, Sandra Bullock, Leonardo DiCaprio and Eminem also appeared in the top ten.

Bebo, Saif crazy about Depp

Kareena Kapoor's birthday plans for September 21 have undergone a change. Bebo was to originally fly to Paris with her mother, sister Karisma and beau Saif Ali Khan.

Now Babita Kapoor and Karisma have dropped out because Karisma's children are too young and the actress doesn't want to put them through too much travel in a span of just four days.

Saif is now taking his girlfriend for a four-day trip to the most romantic city in the world. While the actors are likely to stay at the Ritz Hotel, they will be having the birthday dinner at the Mandala Ray, a restaurant near the Champs Elysees. This restaurant and bar is co-owned by Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and John Malkovich.

Bebo says, "Both Saif and I are crazy about Johnny Depp. And Saif just thought it is appropriate to buy me my birthday dinner at Johnny's restaurant." The actress won't reveal anything further... but one hears that Saif has another 'surprise' planned for her in connection to Johnny Depp. But this one is truly a surprise and Saif refuses to divulge anything till after the 21st.

Jolie strips to seduce Depp in The Tourist

Actress Angelina Jolie has been pictured stripping off as she seduces her co-star actor Johnny Depp in The Tourist.

Jolie, 35, was seen letting her silky robe fall to the floor before sharing a saucy snog with Depp, 47, in the newly released trailer, the Sun reported.

Depp plays an American tourist who meets the mysterious Elise on a train in Italy and gets drawn into a complicated spy plot.

‘The Tourist’ is set to hit cinemas in December.

Depp to star with girlfriend

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp and his longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis will be seen together in a new film about feminist writer Simone De Beauvoir.

While the French actress will play De Beauvoir in the film titled My American Lover, Depp is in negotiations to play her lover Nelson Algren, reports digitalspy.co.uk.

"They're still writing the script but the idea would be amazing because it's such a beautiful story. You only know when you're really actually shooting," said Paradis.

The couple were previously cast together in Terry Gilliam's Don Quixote, but the film could not be completed.

"We've had plenty of opportunities to work together. But I don't know that I could do it... It's something we don't look for, otherwise it would've happened many times," she said.

"My American Lover came along and it might happen just because the story is great and why not if we can, but we don't push things. Playing in front of one of the best actors in the world that we have and someone I know so well will be challenging," she added.