Johnny Depp's latest endeavor, Globe Road's "City of Lights," did give me a teeny bit of hope. After all, this was Depp in a serious drama with Forest Whitaker and based on the unsolved murder of rapper Biggie Smalls in L.A.
The film was due for theatrical release on September 7th, but now, after a series of awkward public appearances by Depp, it has been indefinitely pulled from release.
No reason has been given for the shelving but it doesn't take much digging to realize Depp's public behavior these last few months has been rather strange.
Last month, a "City of Lies" crewmember sued Depp for allegedly punching twice on set during production of the crime saga.
Depp had the industry talking when Rolling Stone published writer Stephen Rodrick's “The Trouble With Johnny Depp,“ an interview with the troubled 55-year-old actor, which had the sleazy subtitle of “Multimillion-dollar lawsuits, a haze of booze and hash, a marriage gone very wrong and a lifestyle he can’t afford — inside the trials of Johnny Depp.”
Their interview went on for 72 hours, claimed Roderick. A three-day, almost sleepless, binge of drugs, and alcohol in which Depp indulged himself in.
Depp also showed up at the end of the Fantastic Beasts presentation at this year's Comic-Con, in San Diego, and delivered a nonsensical speech to a mostly befuddled crowd.
Sometime around his appearance in "The Rum Diaries," Johnny Depp's behavior changed. He left his partner of 14 years, Vanessa Paradis, and married an opportunistic young actress, Amber Heard, too quickly might I add. Oh, and the really bad financial decisions didn't help either. This all lead to alcoholism. Depp notoriously struggled with drugs and alcohol in the late 1980′s but cleaned up. It seems to be back.
Depp is going through a very apparent mental breakdown. It all started in 2012 with the potent mix of marrying Amber Heard and being very stupid with his money. As it stands, his last good movie was 2009's "Public Enemies.
However, here's the thing, a few of those mediocre movies I mentioned earlier on? Yeah, well, they are successful enough to not have Depp, despite the clearly visible problems, be blacklisted. "Alice in Wonderland," "Alice Through the Looking Glass," "Pirates 4," "Pirates 5," and "Murder on the Orient Express" all made a boatload of money at the box-office. He's also in the upcoming "Fantastic Beasts" sequel, which is connected to the Harry Potter franchise.
"Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" hits theaters Nov. 16.