Johnny Depp Signs On for Another Literary Adaptation: Here’s a Look at His Past Book-Based Roles
Johnny Depp’s comeback is apparently complete. The iconic actor is set to take on his first major studio role since 2018, and he’s doing it in a way that brings him back to somewhere comfortable. Depp has signed on to portray Ebenezer Scrooge in Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol. This is not Depp’s first time tackling a character from a beloved book. He’s played multiple literary roles over the years.
Early Literary Roles
His role as Ebenezer Scrooge, in a film adaptation of the beloved Charles Dickens novella, will be Depp’s latest. One of his earliest roles was a film adaptation of a novel, too. In 1993, Depp received appropriate praise for his part in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. The movie, in which Depp plays a small-town caretaker who struggles with being responsible for his family, was based on a book by Peter Hedges of the same name.
He returned to literary adaptations five years later, after signing on to the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Depp took on the part of Raoul Duke, who was largely inspired by the book’s author, Hunter S. Thompson. The movie is considered a cult classic now, but it was pretty polarizing upon release.
He’s worked with Tim Burton on several adaptations, too
No discussion of Depp’s book adaptations is complete without Tim Burton, his most frequent collaborator. The duo first started working together in the late 1990s, when Depp was cast in Sleepy Hollow; the suspense movie was loosely based on Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Depp played Ichabod Crane.
In 2005, he teamed up with Burton again on a new adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The dark take on the beloved children’s book led to much debate. Depp was unsettling as the chocolatier, who had previously been played by the much more jovial Gene Wilder.
Burton and Depp returned to work together on more literary material in 2010 with Alice in Wonderland. He also signed on for the sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, in 2016. Darker than the source material once more, the films still found a dedicated and passionate fanbase.
Johnny Depp’s latest role makes total sense
Johnny Depp has also worked on movies that drew inspiration from novellas, short stories, and even stage musicals. Sweeney Todd, for example, pulled inspiration from a musical. The Ninth Gate (1999) was based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Club Dumas, and Secret Window (2004) was inspired by a Stephen King novella.
Depp reunited with Thompson’s writing once more in The Rum Diary (2011), based on the author’s early novel about a boozy journalist in Puerto Rico, and he took on roles in Black Mass and Murder on the Orient Express. Depp seems to find comfort in literary characters, so it should come as no surprise that he is choosing one as his first major studio role since his legal drama with Amber Heard changed the trajectory of his career.
