Rats! :(

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797627...egoryid=13&cs=1

'Shantaram' a casualty of strike
Warner Bros. calls off production of Depp film
By MICHAEL FLEMING, ANNE THOMPSON
Depp

The writer's strike posted another casualty Monday as Warner Bros. called off a February production start on "Shantaram," the Mira Nair-directed adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel that was to star Johnny Depp.
Depp, who is producing the film with Graham King, hoped to spend the winter playing an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of India and eventually uses gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan. Abhishek Bachchan was also set to star.

Though Eric Roth was rewriting right up to the start of the writer's strike in an attempt to bring down the pic's pricetag, insiders attributed the postponement partly to script considerations but also other factors, such as the onset of monsoon season in India and a snag over how much time Depp would spend shooting there vs. New Mexico, where part of the film will be shot.

"Shantaram" follows the Ron Howard-directed "Angels & Demons" and the Oliver Stone-directed "Pinkville" as high-profile films whose imminent production starts were postponed because their sponsoring studios decided they couldn't overcome logistical or script problems that are exacerbated by the WGA strike and looming expirations of the DGA and SAG contracts next June.

Several other films were rumored to be on the bubble.

WB, Nair, King and Depp plan to make "Shantaram" as soon as they can, sources said.

Pic has been a top studio priority studio since Depp's zeal prompted WB to pay $2 million for the book. The project has survived several bumps on the development road, including the exit of director Peter Weir because his vision didn't match that of Depp and King.

-Donna

You know that Johnny will get this done. It's his baby. Keep the faith. He is probably angry over all of this.

Nicci :angel

Nooooo! I've really been looking forward to this. If this doesn't happen next year, hopefully somebody else will snap Johnny up. We can't have a whole year with no new movie. I can't even think about that. Keeping :crossfingers that Shantaram gets back on track or that something good turns up. Stupid strike! :angry:

Debbie

New Mexico? They're planning to film some of the movie in New Mexico?? That's my neighbor state to the south ~ less than a day's drive away! No monsoons either! You can bet I'll be there, whenever the thing gets going! :D I agree, this is Johnny's pet project ~ he'll get it done.

We don't know that he is angry. This is business. It's not personal. While this project has been one that he's been behind, he's also a very astute business man and sometimes these types of decisions have to be made. He knows what's going on and what the facts are. We don't know his role in the decision making. All we can do is hope that if they all can get things to come together, then a film will be made.

So much for my optimism... :(

Hey, Karen, wasn't Donleavy writing the Ginger Man screenplay? He's not a member of WGA....maybe we'll see some movement there?

Why yes, in fact JP Donleavy has a finished script for The Ginger Man. One can only hope Fan. :crossfingers

B) My neighbor state too! I see a JDR meetup somewhere in the future!

That could be a possiblity then too!!

I just read about this all in a google alert and my heart went :( .. but I think it will only be a matter of time

~ Mary Kay

Fan, you have given us a glimmer of hope there.

Nicci :angel

And it would be filmed in Ireland. ;)

If Johnny has some unexpected free time, how about a tour with The Kids? Just kidding. I'm sure he wouldn't do that. Now that we know he can sing, he could sing background and play guitar. He'd be in rock and roll heaven, as long as he didn't feel he was exploiting his fame to bring attention to the band's shows.

The Gypsy band could be the opening act (or vice versa).

That would be such a cool tour.

-- carpediem

Well Ginger Man is looking more promising! This link mentions that Rum Diary is on hold as well. :(

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainme...tertainmentNews

Also put on hold for Depp is "The Rum Diary," an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel for Warner Independent Pictures. Bruce Robinson, whose 1987 comedy "Withnail & I" gained a cult following, was adapting and directing.

"Rum," loosely based on Thompson's experience working as a freelance journalist in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s, is in the development stages. Depp had planned to make the film after "Shantaram."

Depp next appears on the big screen in "Sweeney Todd," which premieres December 3 in New York.

Premiere 12/3? :blink: Or is this a reference to the industry screenings?

-Donna

No, I bet that's a NY premiere. That was the date that was rumored and I couldn't get anyone to confirm or deny. ;)

On hold doesn't mean quitting. Right? :blink:

Monsoon season doesn't start until June.

January filming was a bit soon for me personally.

Keeping my :crossfingers for things to come together.

I don't see anything on the Bollywood pages about this yet, even though I'm checking daily.

On hold, means on hold, Postponed. The start date had already been moved to Feb of 08 and this just looks like a delay. But who knows for how long?

It's on Variety, so I am sure the Bollywood papers and sites will have it soon.

Hopefully Mira Nair will have something to say about all of this next week in NY.

I hope she will have something to say. :crossfingers

:snoopy woohoo :snoopy

Sorry, I forgot I was sad at all the delays. A Sweeney premiere in NY? Ooooooooohhhh please!

Back on topic, the implication in this most recent article is that The Rum Diary is another casualty of the WGA strike. Why/how is Bruce Robinson a member of the WGA? He's a British national who lives and mostly works in the UK, isn't he? He's listed as a member so maybe that's a requirement in order to work with a union shop in the US.

edit: Theresa on JDZ found a clause in the WGA bylaws that allows reciprocal arrangements with other writers guilds around the world. This allows foreign nationals to join the WGA when they work on US properties if they also belong to a guild elsewhere that has a similar reciprocity. This is most likely how Robinson is a WGA member and why TRD is hit by the strike.

On the WGA's live journal community site, they posted a list first of individuals, by name, who have lost their jobs due to the strike. They follow that with a list of industry people who are publicly coming out in support of efforts to end the strike. This is a plea to the two bargaining units to sit down until they reach a deal. Among the latter list are two people from Infinitum Nihil. You can see this here:

click here and scroll way down - N. Todd and M. Glynn from IN

Thanks Fan! Definately getting more and more interesting.

Hey Sherlock-FAN, nice tidbit! :lol: :thumbsup

Thanks FANtasticJD :)

Just thought I'd add that according to this video (which is a response to the WGA youtube video) the WGA have also said that they would ban any independent screenwriters from ever joining the union (and therefore working with big studios) if they wrote an indie film during the strike and that film got picked up by a big studio for distribution.
Not sure what this effects, but I thought that in itself was interesting...

Nothing new here, but it's from an Indian source, no mention about if/how it will affect costar Amitabh Baachan's schedule, because previous reports said another Indian director wanted him at the same January timeslot.

Article:
Here


Writer’s strike puts Mira’s ‘Shantaram’ on hold

Washington, Nov 20: Johnny Depp and Big B starrer ‘Shantaram’ has become the third big movie to be halted due to the writer’s strike that has already grounded Ron Howard-directed "Angels & Demons" and the Oliver Stone-directed "Pinkville".

Warner Bros. has called off a February production start on "Shantaram," Mira Nair’s adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel of the same name.

Depp, who is also producing the film with Graham King, was going to star in it in the lead role, playing an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of India and eventually uses gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan.

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was also set to star, reports Variety.

According to sources, Warner Bros., Nair, King and Depp plan to start work on the film as soon as possible.

The movie has been a top priority for WB ever since it shelved out 2 million dollars for the rights to the book.

Apart from script considerations, sources have also attributed the postponement to other factors, such as the onset of monsoon season in India and a snag over how much time Depp would spend shooting there vs. New Mexico, where part of the film will be shot.

Bureau Report

That was Indian tabloid stuff - not to be taken seriously (here's the article). In fact in the very same article both Mr Bachchan and Deepa Mehta said there were no date problems since Mehta was still a long way from completing the script.
It's just the sort of thing the Indian tabloids like to do - Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta get pitted against each other because it makes a good story, not because there's any truth in it.
Maybe I should explain why it "makes a good story". Basically, there's three successful international female directors who happen to be of Indian descent - Mira Nair (based in the US), Deepa Mehta (based in Canada) and Gurinder Chadha (based in the UK). Gurinder Chadha tends to take up more commercial subjects, but both Mira and Deepa tend to go for more serious ones. And so I guess that's why they end up being compared and then the Indian media goes further and starts trying to imply some sort of rivalry between them which isn't there really.

As is my unfortunate habit I'll go off topic :P - IMO Deepa Mehta is really worth checking out for anyone who enjoyed Mira's films. Mehta's last film - "Water" was nominated for the foreign language Academy Award (representing Canada), but some say that "Earth" which got ignored by the Academy some years back was even better. Her films tend to take up more controversial subjects than Mira's do. "Water" is about the treatment of widows in India. It's told through the eyes of a little girl who has a child marriage and then her husband (who is much older than her) dies when she's about 8 and she has to go through all the customs of being a widow. When Mehta tried to shoot it in India some years back she had the sets of the film totally destroyed by Hindu extremists. She eventually shot it many years later in Sri Lanka. Another of her element trilogy films - "Fire" had problems upon its release in India. It told the story of a family where two of the women enter into a lesbian relationship. Hindu extremists attacked some of the cinemas in which it was shown.
Sadly, the only one of her films which I got to see is "Earth" which is a story about the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. I would definitely recommend this film to everybody. Apart from just being a really good and very watchable film, I learnt a great deal of history from it. All the violence is shown very tastefully and delicately (the film got a 15 certificate in the UK, most of the violence happens off screen) and yet "Earth" is one of two films in my life that I couldn't sleep after... I can't really explain why (I'm not squeamish - the idea of seeing all the throat cutting in Sweeney Todd doesn't disturb me at all ;) ), but I guess it was just so difficult to get one's head round that this really happened... Perhaps what shocked me most is that I was never taught about this at school. It seemed like something I really should have known about...

Anyway, in case anyone's wondering Mehta's next (the one she wants to rope in Amitabh Bachchan for) is about how hundreds of Indians came on a ship to Canada and were denied entry. This was at the beginning of the 20th century I think... So she's clearly keeping to controversial topics ;)

If an actor is 'attached' to a film, when do they become 'unattached' if a film is delayed, or worse? That is my question.
Will Amitabh still be around for Shantaram? Or will Amitabh do another film while he is waiting for Shantaram?

I'm glad to hear Deepa is far from finishing the script. Hopefully far enough to allow Amitabh to finish Shantaram first!

Generally, Mr Bachchan does a very large amount of films. If you check out his filmography then he's got 8 films in 2007, 5 in 2006, 10 in 2005 and so on (few of those are leads of course).
What this means for Shantaram I have no idea (though judging by those numbers it does seem like there could be scheduling conflicts :( ). I think both sides will try to work out something as best they can. At the moment probably even the makers of Shantaram have no idea how it's all going to turn out, so I think all we can do is wait *sigh*

A little more on Mr Bachchan's schedule...

I found this interview with Deepa Mehta from September and she said she had spoken to Mr Bachchan about the role, but not signed him yet because he wasn't sure about dates. She said she hoped to wrap up her next film by the end of the summer. However, I've read somewhere on the imdb message boards (and the person sounded quite reliable) that her film will also be delayed by the screenwriters' strike.

Currently, Mr Bachchan is doing this project. It says that they expect he'll have completed shooting for it by the end of this year. None of his other assignments seem to be public knowledge at this time.