Depp is 'The Libertine'
reported by emma in the UK, 10 January 2004

Film Force article by Brian Linder, 8 January 2004

Depp Is The Libertine
17th century poet with a penchant for bad behavior.

January 08, 2004 - Johnny Depp is about to step into another eccentric period role. According to today's Variety, the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star has joined the cast of The Libertine, which is set to start shooting next month in London.

The film is based on a play by Stephen Jeffreys, which is based on the true life story of John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester. As Jeffreys described it to Dramatic Publishing, "My play The Libertine is about John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, who was the leading figure at the court of Charles II. Rochester is now recognized as one of the major poets of the 17th century, but in his own lifetime his career as a womanizer, drinker, atheist, pornographer and rebel gained him more attention than his serious writing. He died of alcohol and syphilis at the age of 33 after making a late conversion to Christianity."

The raunchy play was staged in the mid 1990s at the Royal Court Theatre and won popular acclaim. The American premiere took place in 1996 with John Malkovich in the lead role.

Depp will star opposite John Malkovich and Samantha Morton in the film. And British commercial director Laurence Dunmore, a commercial director, will make is feature debut with the project. Jeffreys will adapt the play for the screen. The trade adds that the film's budget is around $16 million – close to Depp's usual take on high-profile flicks.

After he's done with Libertine, Depp will star in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.

Malkovich with 'The Libertine' at Cannes
reported by Reemi and Sleepy, 17 May 2003

The Times article May 17, 2003

Malkovich looks ahead to being King of England
by Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent in Cannes

THE American star John Malkovich is to play Charles II in an ambitious British film about the Earl of Rochester, the debauched 17th-century poet who died a physical wreck at 33.

Speaking to The Times at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday, the actor, whose films include Dangerous Liaisons and Being John Malkovich, said that it had taken about seven years to inspire people to invest in the £10.5 million production.

“I had every difficulty imaginable,” he said. “I didn’t quite get what the objections to it were, but people don’t know how to read scripts. That’s a huge part of the problem. They can’t visualise the film. They don’t have the scope to imagine and interpret what something is about.”

The Libertine tells the true story of Rochester, who was a confidant of the King but also a whoremonger, drunkard and destructive charmer in Restoration England’s bawdy and morally corrupt society. He is also considered to be the most learned among the Restoration wits and one of the most original English satirists. Malkovich said: “He was very talented, but some of his work was locked up at the Bodleian (in Oxford) for centuries because it was so dirty.” Rochester experienced a religious conversion when he became seriously ill in 1680, ordering that “all his profane and lewd writings” be burnt.

The screenplay has been written by the British playwright Stephen Jeffreys, who writes primarily for the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has adapted a drama that he wrote for the Royal Court before Malkovich took it to the American stage. It wowed the critics as a “game of wit, with its quick thrusts and sharp parrying”.

In the stage version, Malkovich played Rochester. In the film, that role is taken by the Hollywood star Johnny Depp, who made Chocolat. Malkovich said that he could not have expected film audiences to suspend disbelief: “He died at 33. I’m almost 50.”

The British actress Samantha Morton, whose films include Sweet and Lowdown, appears as a struggling actress for whom the handsome debauchee falls. The film is being made by the British company Odyssey Entertainment, and a first-time British director, Laurence Dunmore, 38, whose award-winning work in directing commercials had impressed Malkovich as a talent to watch. They worked together on a commercial for Eurostar.

Mastering the English accent to play the King will not pose a problem as the actor had already mastered it for Rochester. Critics applauded his aggressive and insinuating performance, half sexual allure and half sneering disdain.

Malkovich said: “Rochester delights in tweaking the noses of London’s royals with his merciless cynicism. His rebellious escapades and carnal liaisons inspire awe amongst men, but it is his subverse and sexually explicit wit that earns their reverence. The film is about one’s responsibilities to one’s talent. He prefers getting drunk, having a bit of sodomy, gambling his life away and vomiting.”

The script is laden with sex and period language, much of it coarse even by 21st century standards. Filming is expected to begin in December.

First news of John Malkovich's proposed film 'The Libertine'
reported by Emma and Reemi, 8 May 2003

Screen Daily.com report of 8 May 2003 by Adam Minns

Odyssey to bring high-profile slate to Cannes

Ralph Kamp and Louise Goodsill's UK-based sales company Odyssey Entertainment is heading to Cannes with a bustling slate including two new additions - The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp, John Malkovich and Samantha Morton, and The Blue Afternoon, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Olivier Martinez and Sam Neill.

The Libertine stars Depp as the real-life Earl of Rochester, the notoriously debauched 17th century poet who died at 33 a physical wreck. Malkovich, whose Mr Mudd production company has been developing the project since he starred in the original play as Rochester, will play King Charles II. Morton plays a struggling young actress with whom Rochester becomes enraptured.

"I can't see anyone apart from Johnny Depp playing Rochester," said Kamp. "He's playing someone so admired and yet so outrageous."

Commercials director Laurence Dunmore, who first worked with Malkovich on an advert for the Eurostar train, is expected to start shooting in December or January.

The script, by playwright Stephen Jeffreys, is laden with sex and period language - much of it coarse. Russell Smith, who produces with Malkovich and Lianne Halfon at Mr Mudd, said the film will provide actors with plenty of room to act, as well as delve into the underbelly of life for ordinary people in "a dirty, muddy, smelly period".

"If we had made the script lighter, funnier, with less crotch references, it might have been easier to get made," said Smith. "You shoot a rocket into someone's mouth and people say it is exciting, but sex is dangerous."