If you've read Hunter Thompson's The Rum Diary you'll know that while it's many things - riotous, chaotic, colourful - what it isn't is an obviously 'filmy' book. There's not a lot of conflict, little need for resolution and no big villain to have audiences hissing at the screen. Then again, something similar was said about **Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas **and that ended up winning a spot in cult movie heaven.
This, we suspect, is where Bruce Robinson comes in. It's a hugely welcome return for the **Withnail And I **director, coaxed out of semi-retirement by Johnny Depp to write and direct. The humour and none-more-quotable patter that made **Withnail **great, combined with Thompson's acid prose, should make for a feast for fans of smart scriptwriting and blackly comic moments.
These two new clips from the film, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, set the scene for Paul Kemp's (Depp) arrival in the Puerto Rico town of San Juan, where he's due to start working for The San Juan Star. There he gets involved in a bombshell blonde by the name of Chenault (Amber Heard), sharp operator Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) and a titanic amount of rum.
Depp's compared the story to Casablanca, humbly we're sure, and there's more than a touch of Scoop in there too. It's out in cinemas from November 11; let us know if you're looking forward to seeing Captain Jack back in landlubbers garb in the usual spot...