The Johnny Depp-starring adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Rum Diary finished principal photography almost two years ago, and a film with huge star in it sitting on the shelf so long is usually a bad sign. but I posted a reader’s review of in April of 2010, and it sounded pretty positive. So when the hell do we actually get to see it? The answer is soon, provided your idea of “soon” is in October. Here’s the official press release via distributor FilmDistrict, who’s releasing their first two films, Insidious and Soul Surfer, this weekend and the following.
FilmDistrict will release “The Rum Diary,” based on the early Hunter S. Thompson novel that was ultimately published in 1998. It stars Johnny Depp and will be released on October 28, 2011. The film is directed by Bruce Robinson (“Withnail and I”) from his own screenplay and also stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Michael Rispoli, Richard Jenkins and Giovanni Ribisi. “The Rum Diary” is produced by Infinitum Nihil, the production company headed by Depp and Christi Dembrowski, along with Graham King and Tim Headington. Anthony Rhulen and Robert Kravis also produce.
“The Rum Diary” tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Depp). Tired of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local San Juan newspaper run by the downtrodden editor Lotterman (Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked lifestyle of the late ‘50s version of Hemingway’s “The Lost Generation,” Paul soon becomes entangled with a very attractive American woman, Chenault (Heard) and her fiancée Sanderson (Eckhart), a businessman involved in shady property development deals. It is within this world that Kemp ultimately discovers his true voice as a writer and integrity as a man. [CinemaBlend]
I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this damned movie, and I can’t believe I have to wait… SEVEN MORE MONTHS??!?! My God, it’s an eternity. But what if I’ve PUT AWAY childish things by then?
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They’re busy filming the follow-up movie LoTR/Matrix-style, so that they can release it two months after this hits: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.
My rum diary usually reads “Afjl ;dks;f jadfoaibhn jadlkjrafo dsif ujmfal dfks jf. OMG, he was sooooo cute!”
But what if I’ve PUT AWAY childish things by then?
Well, first you’d have to find some pants.
It’s weird, I kind of feel like I should be “anticipating” this movie more, but I am really “meh” on it.
I saw this movie a year ago. My NDA has surely lapsed so I’ll give my two cents. Decent but no Battle: LA or anything.
June 20, 1958: Why is the rum always gone?
Serious question(s) time: would the average American have seen Withnail and I? And if so, what would they make of it? Thanking you in advance. - below-average Australian
spaz, Average Americans wouldn’t have seen it. Those that do, like it well enough, but don’t get the fanaticism for it.
This is the part where I put on my teflon cod piece and point out that I’ve already seen this. Feel the burn!
Why am I so awesome? I just am.
Or I just bothered to say yes when someone offered me tickets to a surprise screening of something. One of those two. Though I suppose they aren’t mutually exclusive.
They better not have cut it down.
[Laying in hammock, tips back panama]
I have a release date. At the Chinese massage, next Friday.
Cheers, Mort. I had suspected something along those lines.
Vince, what’s your take on Yeamon not being in the movie? Without him, who’s going to initiate all the drunken brawls? Did the guy who reviewed the movie say anything to you about how the plot differs without him?
so this is about a writer finding his integrity as a man? when i need to find my integrity as a man i go to the forest to boot fuck grizzly bears while eating a grilled cheese sandwich…
There aren’t a great deal of drunken brawls in the cut I saw (the first ever screened). There was plenty of recreational drug use, and a lot of the core characters fleeing from folks at a little outdoor bar who want to do them harm, and there’s one fight in a bar which is of course over a woman (Aren’t they all?)