Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Returns to Direct THE TOURIST Starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie

Last October, The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck came on board to direct The Tourist, which at the time starred Angelina Jolie and Sam Worthington.  But a few weeks later, both Worthington and von Donnersmarck left the project over “creative differences.”  In the same story, it was rumored that Johnny Depp would replace Worthington.  Now, EW is reporting that von Donnersmarck is returning to direct (he must have found creative similarities), and confirmed that Depp will co-star with Jolie.

The Tourist is expected to begin filming this spring, but now that re-raises the question about how this affects Depp’s return to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  That film still seems to be adrift with no new announcements beyond taking the release date of May 20, 2011.  But returning to von Donnersmarck, this is good news for The Tourist since The Lives of Others is a great flick.  For those who don’t know the plot, Tourist is about an American tourist (Depp) drawn into a web of intrigue and danger by a female Interpol agent (Jolie) as she attempts to locate a criminal who was once her lover.