Over a decade after Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas tanked at the box office and became the best movie ever to watch in a college dorm, Johnny Depp is returning to the land of Hunter S. Thompson with The Rum Diary. The first photos from the film have just been released, and looking at them feels, to me, like a hallucinogenic dream come true. Johnny Depp’s role in Fear and Loathing is one of the great over-the-top performances. His bizarro-delivery of the gonzo journalist’s dialogue resulted in one of the most quotable movies ever. I used to spend whole hours just quoting Fear and Loathing back and forth with one of my college buddies. This made us super-popular and got us dozens of girls.
Depp’s role in The Rum Diary is superficially similar to Fear and Loathing. Thompson based the novel’s main character on himself. I haven’t read the novel, but my understanding is that it’s slightly less madcap-zany-incoherent than Fear and Loathing. Although the site of Giovanni Ribisi in a motorcycle sidecar screams “a touch of surrealism.” (“Giovanni Ribisi in a Motorcycle Sidebar” is the name of my jam band, BTW.)
What do you think of this first look of Rum Diary, PopWatchers? Was anyone else as obsessed as I was with Fear and Loathing? (“Tell me about the golf shoes!”) And does this mean that we’re one step closer to Depp starring in a film adaptation of Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, the best work of political journalism to ever accuse a presidential candidate of an Ibogaine addiction?
I loved the book, and Depp really is the perfect choice to play all of the characters Hunter S. Thompson based himself on.
The link is wrong Darren. The original source is a dutch site http://www.filmtotaal.nl/artikel.php?id=18044. Dutch release is December 26th.
December 16th. My mistake.
I am really excited for this movie!!!!
It’s really not as “zany” or “madcap” as you think it is, it’s not a non-fiction, gonzo journalistic tale a la Fear and Loathing. It’s a fiction novel.
I have mixed reactions to the picture: Depp looks a little too prettied up to be Hunter S. At the same time, Depp looks soooo pretty. But to the movie? Thumbs up.
Re: Q
Have you seen Hunter S. when he was young? I’d say its pretty accurate.
thats cause the time period of rum diary is around 1959 or 1960 when hunter had not yet taken on his gonzo persona. at this time he was clean cut, wore khaki pants or shorts and button down shirts. smoked a pipe too… he looked very preppy. also had hair.
You are alone in your affection for the Gilliam film. It sucked.
Dude, just because you thought it sucked doesn’t mean the writer’s alone in his affection for it. I thought it was very original, wild and off the wall and I liked it. I know a lot of other people who also like or love Fear and Loathing. I also know a lot of people who hate it or don’t get it and that’s cool too. Point is it’s a pretty polarizing movie but there are just as many people that like/love it as there are people that hate/loathe Fear and Loathing. At least Terry Gilliam has an original imagination.
No way, it rocked!
I beg your pardon, Fear and Loathing is one of the greatest films featuring mescaline and lizards in the same scene ever to grace this planet. Remember that even though you thought it sucked, you’re probably wrong.
OMG! What planet are you from? Fear and Loathing is a great film. Perfectly done. Huge bats…lizards, more drugs than you can imagine…come on. Johnny Depp nailed it! It was an awesome movie. Now I think I need to go home and pop in the DVD.
Fear and Loathing was an amazing movie, I echo the sentiments of the pro-fear & loathing commentors that came before me. It was also an incredible book, if you’ve seen the movie but haven’t read the book.. do it now!!
Author read the book it’s worth it. It’s nothing like Fear and Loathing but just as good. These pics have been floating around for months. I would love to hear a definate date for release . As much as I love Depp he already has three films out next year we need The Rum Diary out this year. I know a lot of people that have been waiting a long time for this film
Gilliam failed in the ‘Vegas’ adaptation. He missed HST’s dry humor and the tone was far too cartoonish. Jim Jarmusch is a far better choice to adapt Hunter’s work to cinema. His sense of irony & restraint meshes perfectly with Hunter’s twisted & righteous vision. “Rum Diary” looks good but it’s time for Johnny Depp to leave the HST persona behind. Someone new should step in and keep the legend churning. (Has Sean Penn abandoned his dream of filming “The Curse of Lono”?)
The Rum Diary was HST’s first book during his early career, and if you see photos of HST at that time, he was a good-looking man, so why the fuss about Johnny being too good-looking to play this role? This film should not be compared to the Vegas film at all. Totally different decades in HST’s life.
i agree… at that time hunter was not in his gonzo persona. he was real clean cut and looked very preppy
It wasn’t his first.
Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangswas his first. Published in 1966 by Random House.
The Rum Diary was written first, in the early sixties—several years before Hell’s Angels—but remained unpublished until 1998.
They can’t stop that motorcycle with a sidecar there…that’s bat country!
Um, he’s not playing Hunter, he’s playing Paul Kemp, so it really doesn’t matter what he looks like. And as someone said, Hunter was a VERY good looking guy in his younger years, with a fair resemblance to Depp. Hurry up and release this already!
Not a huge Gilliam fan but i thought depp and del torro were awesome in fear and loathing so yeah the writer is definitely not alone. On the flip side my sis hates the movie so i understand that point of view but Fear and Loathing was epic. “Bat Country…”
I loved the Novel Rum Diary… it is less zany than Fear & Loathing because there are No drugs or Hallucinagens, only booze here.. Booze & physical violence is what this stories about – Bring on the Booze Hounds!
and the Campaign trail 72? – Bill Murray did a version of that a few decades back, very well might I add, called Where The Buffalo Roam
Sweet jesus, Where the Buffalo Roam started as Fear and Loathing, until Oscar Acosta sicked his lawyers on Thompson.
Hence it was abandoned and became what it was…
I personally like Bill Murray best in his portrayal of Hunter S Thompson, I think he captures him more realistically than Depp and he get’s his mannerism down to a “T”! I saw “Fear & Loathing” long before I watched “Where the Buffalo Roam” and “Where the Buffalo Roam” totally blew me away.