First Look at Johnny Depp as Gangster Whitey Bulger in BLACK MASS

Johnny Depp is staying busy reprising old roles in things like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Alice in Wonderland 2: Through The Looking Glass, but there's one movie that fans of the old Depp — before he became a parody of himself — should be very excited about, and that's Black Mass. In it, Depp plays real life Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, a crime boss who ratted out his rivals to the feds while managing to become one of the most feared men in the country. (He inspired the creation of movie characters like the one Jack Nicholson played in The Departed.)

EW has our first look at Depp in the role, and a few quotes from director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace):

“[Whitey Bulger] could be charming. He could be ruthless. He was like a cobra—you never knew where he could strike...He murdered [a guy] in front of numerous witnesses in broad daylight. In a word, Whitey was brazen...It’s easy to be the mustache twirling villain but this performance couldn’t be further from that. [Depp] is truly gifted."

Black Mass arrives in theaters on September 18th.