With the first burst of shooting on art world action comedy Mortdecai now complete after a stint in London, director David Koepp and star Johnny Depp are starting the next leg in Los Angeles, and have added Jeff Goldblum, Aubrey Plaza and Oliver Platt to the line-up.
The film, adapted from Kyril Bonfiglioli’s three-book anthology by Eric Aronson, finds Depp playing Charles Mortdecai, a good-for-nothing art dealer and rogue. He’s in the middle of a race to find a stolen painting that is rumoured to include the code to a lost bank account stuffed full of loot stolen by the Nazis. Sounds like a sequel to The Monuments Men!
**Mortdecai **represents Depp reuniting with Koepp, with the pair hoping for more success than their last collaboration, Secret Window. While there is no word on which characters Goldblum, Plaza and Platt are portraying, they’re joining a cast that already includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn and Paul Bettany.
Goldblum, most recently seen in Le Week-End, will next crop up as part of the ensemble for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, due out on March 7. Plaza, busy on her day job of Parks & Recreation, has Life After Beth premiering at Sundance this month, while Platt will be seen in Jon Favreau’s **Chef **(May 9), plus journalism drama **Kill The Messenger **and holiday film Merry Friggin’ Christmas, neither of which have solid UK release dates yet. As for Depp, we'll see him in Transcendence later this year.