Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski are back back back.
However, the actor-director duo won’t be collaborating – at least, not yet – on Pirates Of The Caribbean 4. Instead, Depp has signed on to lend his voice – starting in January - to Rango, an animated film which Verbinski is directing for a 2011 release.
And in doing so, Verbinski joins Robert Zemeckis in the exclusive club of live-action filmmakers who’ve crossed over into animation.
The Paramount movie is about a household pet (Depp) that goes on an adventure to discover its true self. And while that may seem thuddingly generic and been-there-done-that, we’re trusting that Depp and Verbinski will bring a fresh approach to this material. And hiring John Logan to write the script isn’t a bad start.
Certainly, Verbinski will be working closely with ILM to make sure that the visuals are suitably ground-breaking and envelope-pushing, using techniques that "will allow us to capture and translate every aspect of Johnny’s performance,” says Verbinski, “using it to drive the computer-generated character in a way that has yet to be seen in an animated feature.”
Bold words indeed. But the man has shown a neat knack for faring well in whichever genre he feels like turning his hand to, so he should be able to handle the switch to animation.
If you’re wondering what this means for his adaptation of the videogame, Bioshock, it’s still on the agenda. He may even make both that and Rango at the same time. Whatta guy.