Johnny Depp tried his damnedest this year to get an Oscar with Black Mass, but he and his overbearing Boston accent were left out in the cold when nominations were announced last week. But that hasn’t put the actor off of crime dramas, and it now looks like he’s in early talks for the long-gestating Triple Frontier.
We first reported on the project way back in 2009. The title refers to the border zone Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, which is a haven for organized crime. The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal planned to reteam for the crime thriller, and in 2010 they were even in talks with Depp to come on board. However, Bigelow eventually fell off the project after the studio demanded she cast Will Smith if she wanted an $80 million budget.
Now it looks like Smith is off the project and Depp could be back on. However, now it’s J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year) in the director’s chair. According to Variety, he’ll still be working from Boal’s script and Tom Hanks, who we reported was on board in 2010, now has an offer out to co-star in the movie.
While I’d desperately like to see a Kathryn Bigelow-directed take on this material and preferably one minus Depp, I’m still intrigued by the premise and sometimes when a project has been marinating for as long as this one, it becomes a must-see out of sheer longevity. Also, as we saw last year with Sicario, movies that thoughtfully look at War on Drugs have the power to be endlessly captivating even if they're telling the same tragic tale we've been hearing for decades.
Depp will be seen later this year in Alice Through the Looking Glass and Kevin Smith’s indie film Yoga Hosers. He recently wrapped filming on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which opens May 26, 2017.
