“No such thing as 470 proof alcohol!”

The first trailer has at long last dropped for Bruce Robinson’s The Rum Diary, based on a novel by Hunter S. Thompson and starring Johnny Depp. This is the second time Depp has made a movie based on a work by Thompson. He made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, released in 1998 and costarring Benicio Del Toro. Del Toro was at one point attached to direct The Rum Diary, which has been in development since 2001 with production to have begun in 2004. (It didn’t.)

Paul Kemp (Depp) is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life. A divorced alcoholic, he heads to the Caribbean to write for a  run-down newspaper. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself in the middle of a rebellion and amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction.

Written by the director, Bruce Robinson (Withnail & I, How to Get Ahead in Advertising), this looks and sounds like an insane amount of fun. The cast is both wacky and talented, including Giovanni Ribisi (who does not work enough), Richard Jenkins (and his wig), Aaron Eckhardt, Michael Rispoli, Bill Smitrovich and in a role for which both Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley were considered, Amber Heard. (Zombieland, Drive Angry, the upcoming “The Playboy Club”- In the pic below, I thought it was Elizabeth Banks at first, but it’s the makeup.) “I thought you were a mermaid” “I’m from Connecticut.” Love it!

The bar is open for The Rum Diary on October 28 in the US and 4 November in the UK.