Highest-Paid Actor in History

Hollywood Today reports Johnny Depp has earned $78 million so far for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with even more on the horizon with the release of At World's End in May, making him the highest-paid actor in history.

"Bring me that horizon"? You betcha! (Go, Johnny!)

Filming Wraps on 'Sweeney Todd'

According to Variety, filming has been completed on Sweeney Todd as of Friday, April 20th, and the film is now in post-production. Thanks to Kimberly for the info!

Jack Sparrow Featurette

I've uploaded two different versions of the Jack Sparrow Featurette onto the main site, one in AVI format and the other in WMV. You can find it on the Video page on the right-hand side under "POTC3: At World's End". Thanks to Kimmie (Briansgurl18) for the AVI clip!

'Rex Mundi' News

The Arizona Wildcat offers an interview with Jim Uhls, the screenwriter who is working to adapt the 'Rex Mundi' graphic novels into a screenplay for Johnny Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil.

"It's based on a series of graphic novels that are still coming out," says Uhls, "and books one, two and three we are collecting as chapters. Some things we're keeping and some we're changing, but the basic premise is that it's set in the present time but it's an alternative present. By that I mean history happened differently to lead up to the present time. The Catholic Church remained in power over in Europe; the monarchies in Europe are still in control of the rest of the world, most of which is colonies. The Inquisition is still going on, and there's an internal, deep, complicated mystery that the lead character starts to unravel. I changed that mystery entirely from the graphic novel and in doing so created a lot of work for myself. (laughs)"

When asked when this film will be finished and released in theatres, Uhls didn't have a definite answer, but his best guess was possibly sometime in 2008 at the earliest.

New AWE Publicity Photos

A foreign web site has posted a set of publicity photos for the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, including four gorgeous ones of Captain Jack. Thanks to Kimberly for the link!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The photos of the other characters can be found at http://fdb.blox.pl/html

News Briefs 04/16

- I've uploaded two new video clips for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End to the Video Clips section of the site. They're on the right side of the page under the movie's title. "What Are You Doing" is a short clip from the movie, and "Featurette" has various short clips combined with interviews.

- The OC Register reports Johnny Depp will appear in a line of talking/musical greeting cards from Hallmark. The Pirates of the Caribbean greeting cards, an expansion of Hallmark's popular movie/tv character product line, feature a small sound device which plays when the card is opened.

- ITV reports Harvey Weinstein is working on a film version of the Broadway musical "Nine" and is considering stars like George Clooney, Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp and Antonio Banderas for the lead. The 2003 revival of the production starred Antonio Banderas on Broadway and won 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Premiere Tickets for Charity

Pirates fans can buy tickets to the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End to be held at the Disneyland park on May 19th. Ticket prices are $1,500 each, with the proceeds directly benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Thanks to Disney for the link and image!

Visit the Pirates Premiere web site through this link or by clicking the image below.

Fans without premiere tickets may still buy admission to the park that day and watch the red carpet ceremonies, etc., from the sidelines.

News Briefs 04/12

- Metro.co.uk reports the Depp family enjoyed a stroll at the River Thames this past weekend. There are paparazzi pictures floating around, but I won't post them here, nor does the Metro link use them with the article. It's just nice to know they're out and about.

- In a strangely related item, BloggerNews has a brief article about Orlando Bloom and a conversation he once had with Johnny Depp: “I was talking to Johnny on the set one time. I said, ‘Can you believe they pay you this much money to do a job you love?’ And he said, ‘Privacy becomes really expensive.’ It’s true.”

- Newsweek has ranked Johnny Depp as the second most powerful actor in Hollywood this year. Will Smith took the Number 1 spot with a worldwide career box office of $4.4 billion.

Johnny & the Choir Girls

The Independent reports a small fan encounter between Johnny Depp and the choir girl group "All Angels" recently in London:

The choirgirl group All Angels, up for Best Album at the Classical Brits next month (in the middle of their A-levels), ran into Johnny Depp at the Dorchester. Depp has stayed at the hotel while filming the Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd at Pinewood.

"When he came over and said 'Hi' I nearly lost it!" says singer Charlotte Ritchie - who, despite meeting Daniel Radcliffe when she played a Hogwarts pupil in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "nearly fainted" in front of Depp.

"He's not at all like the rock'n'roll image you hear about - more bookish, with his glasses. He had a cup of tea, and said he loved our singing. He said that having once been a rocker he thought he could hold a tune, but singing musical theatre made him wish he'd gone to choir classes like us." The old smoothie.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Jack Depp turns 5 today. Happy Birthday, little man! Hope you have a great day.

AWE Premiere Sweepstakes

AOL is offering a Pirate's Dream Sweepstakes to win a trip for 4 to the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Click here to enter.

Thanks to Kimberly for the tip!

Gallery Updates 04/04

There's no real news to report right now, but I've been busy behind the scenes organizing pictures and updating the galleries on the site.

The majority of them are in Events and Recent Additions (which aren't new pics, just recently added to the site). I've also started a gallery for the new Sweeney Todd pics, and will hopefully be adding more to it soon.

Enjoy!