While Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s contentious court battle will undoubtedly continue to be slogged out for weeks to come in the headlines, it looks as though Depp himself may be on the verge of a career upswing. One of the significant issues of the court case is how Heard’s accusations have completely derailed his career, with his last movie being shot back in 2019 (Minamata – which only came out earlier this year). Now, it looks like Johnny Depp has landed his first big live-action role since then, with the embattled actor set to star as King Louis XV in director Maiwenn’s new movie, Jeanne Du Barry.
According to ScreenDaily, the film “is freely inspired by the life of Jeanne Bécu who was born as the illegitimate daughter of an impoverished seamstress in 1743 and went on to rise through the Court of Louis XV to become his last official mistress. Maïwenn will also star as Jeanne du Barry opposite Johnny Depp as Louis XV. Other cast members will include Louis Garrel, Pierre Richard and Noemie Lvovsky.”
While this may not sound like a future blockbuster, it’s worth noting that Maiwenn is highly regarded in Europe, both as an actress and as a director. Her films, Polisse and Mon Roi, were critical and financial hits in France, and a movie such as this will likely be doing the film festival rounds once it wraps up, meaning it will probably be more widely seen than Depp’s most recent films. Indeed, his last role in a prominent feature was Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and we saw how that ended up. The trial recently revealed that Depp, at one point, was near a deal to return for a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean outing, but the project fell apart following Heard’s accusations.
In the meantime, Depp’s court case continues this week, with Heard set to take the witness stand before the week is out. Are you interested to see Johnny Depp in a new movie soon?