Billy Ray to write THE THIN MAN adaptation starring Johnny Depp

Billy Ray has been hired to write The Thin Man movie starring Johnny Depp for Warner Bros. THR reports that the writer-director of Shattered Glass and Breach will pen an adaptation of the classic Dashiell Hammett novel. Rob Marshall is attached to direct the Warner Bros. project. Depp will produce the project with his Infinitum Nihil partner Christi Dembrowski along with Kevin McCormick via his studio-based Langley Park.

The 1934 film starred William Powell and Myrna Loy and which centered on "former private detective-turned-professional drunkard Nick Charles, his lovely socialite wife Nora and their schnauzer Asta as they investigate a murder involving an eccentric inventor and his bizarre family." A total of five movies and a TV series followed.

Jerry Stahl was initially set to write the script, and then David Koepp was brought on. He left after his vision didn’t line up with Marshall’s, forcing a hunt for a new scribe. Ray is writing Peter Pan Begins for producer Joe Roth and Columbia. He is also writing the Somali pirate film, A Captain’s Duty, starring Tom Hanks.

I think that Depp will be good in this role, what are your thoughts?