John Depp Brings Vintage TV to the Big Screen

While a new movie version of his old TV show "21 Jump Street"  hits the box office, mega star Johnny Depp is in production to bring three other vintage TV shows to the big screen.



Depp is currently filming "The Lone Ranger", playing trusty scout and side-kick Tonto to Armie Hammer's masked man.  Hammer's Lone Ranger, clad in White Stetson and black suit, may look heroic standing beside Tonto who's wearing black and white face paint in a zebra-like pattern with a large black bird on his head, but get ready for an interesting plot twist. Just as Cato challenges the Green Hornet, claiming that he is responsible for the success of the duo, so too does Tonto demonstrate that he is the brains of the operation, not Kimosabe.

The movie was shut down in 2011, but resumed production and is scheduled for release about May 31, 2013.

The award winning actor collaborates with director Tim Burton to launch a big-screen version of the  soap opera "Dark Shadows" on May 11.  The cult classic, which hit the small screen in 1966, ran until 1971. Donning pale skin, jet black hair, and dark circles under his eyes, Depp takes the role of 18th century vampire Barnabas Collins who is unearthed in 1972. Helen Bonham Carter of Harry Potter fame, and the award winning "The King's Speech", is featured in her seventh Burton film.

Last month it was announced that Depp enlisted Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead" and "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World") for a movie adaptation of "The Night Stalker", another vintage TV series from the early '70s.  The movie also features vampires, but in this one Depp is not the vampire being hunted. Rather, he plays Tabloid reporter Carl Kolchak.

Posted in: Culture,Entertainment,Helen Bonham Carter,Johnny Depp,The Emerald Quill,The Lone Ranger,The Night Stalker,Tim Burton