Gore Verbinski may be hard at work finishing off The Lone Ranger but his eye has already begun to shift to his next project. Pyongyang is an adaptation of Canadian cartoonist Guy Delisle's graphic novel Pyongyang: A Journey In North Korea.
As graphic novel adaptations go, North Korean travelogue **Pyongyang **is probably not the one you'd expect Gore Verbinski to plump for. A Reds or a Locke & Key maybe, but not a gently satirical look at the inner workings of the planet's most secretive state. Just try making a theme-park ride out of this one, dude.
Delisle was one of the few Westerners to be granted a visa to visit the North Korean capital. He spent two months there, running the production of an outsourced French children's TV programme, although his nosings through the repressive society ruffled enough feathers to ensure that, as he commented drily, "I don't think I would be welcome there anymore".
New Regency and Verbinski's marque Blind Wink have hired The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty's Steve Conrad to write the script. Johnny Depp to play Kim Jong-Il? Watch this space.