As Johnny Depp prepares to screen his (15-minute) acting return at the Cannes Film Festival, he has cast Al Pacino for “Modi”, his first directorial effort in 25 years.
This will be a biopic of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Pacino will be joined by lead star Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick Chapter 2), and Pierre Niney (Yves Saint Laurent).
Filming is set to start in Budapest this fall.
Based on a play by Dennis McIntyre, the film will tell the story of the famous painter, during his time in Paris 1916, zeroing in on the 48 hours which had him running from police through the streets and bars of war-torn Paris.
Depp’s first film as a director was 1997’s “The Brave” starring Marlon Brando. It was met with negative reviews at Cannes and, ultimately, Depp decided not to release his film in the United States, either in theaters or on home media.
Pacino was last seen in 2021’s “House of Gucci.” His next film is the Michael Keaton directed “Knox Goes Away,” which is currently in post-production. He’s also currently shooting “Sniff” with director Taylor Hackford.
Back to Depp, he might still be struggling to make a comeback in the United States, but he seems very keen in working on European productions. As mentioned earlier, he’ll be premiering a new film at Cannes next week, Maiwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry.”