Johnny Depp to play Mexican revolutionary hero Pancho Villa

Johnny Depp is currently in negotiations to play Mexican revolutionary hero Pancho Villa in a biopic being developed by Serbian fimmaker Emir Kusturica called, Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers. That's a pretty long title for a film. This isn't the first time Depp and Kusturica have worked together, they previously collaborated on 1993's Arizona Dream.

Kusturica says that the script is completed and the film wont even start shooting until 2011 due to Johnny Depp's prior commitments to other films. I guess they are willing to wait for the star power to become available instead of casting someone else. Salma Hayek is also in negotiations to co-star in the movie.

The biopic will be shot in Spanish, Depp will be acting in Spanish according to the director. It will be filmed partly in Mexico, where Villa; an early 20th-century bandit who became a guerilla fighter and a hero to the poor, is an iconic historical figure.

The script is based on the biographical novel The Friends of Pancho Villa, in which author James Carlos Blake recounts how Villa and his compadres had a great time fighting and robbing the rich, but also dancing, partying and making love.

Villa has previously been portrayed several times in movies by actors such as Antonio Banderas, Telly Savalas and even Villa himself in the 1914 film The Life of General Villa, which was produced by D.W. Griffith.

Depp's a great actor, of course he'll be able to pull it off.

So what do you think of Depp's new acting gig?

Source: Variety