Netflix will host the first new Johnny Depp movie in over two years.
Depp, who spent most of 2022 embroiled in an uphill legal battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard, hasn’t made a feature film since Minamata, a drama released in 2020. He is now confirmed to star in La Favorite, where he will play the French monarch King Louis XV.
The first news of Depp and Netflix’s involvement in the film broke today (July 7), when reports of Bloomberg indicated that Netflix would be helping to finance and stream Depp’s new film,
However, learned from a Netflix spokesperson that the streaming giant is not providing funding for the film, but has licensed the film for hosting on its platform after its theatrical release.
La Favorite is a production of a French company, Why Not Productions. It is expected to be released in 2023 in French theaters with Netflix, waiting a full 15 months before heading to the platform. Even so, the film will only be available to French Netflix subscribers.
O French newspaper Le Figaro (opens in new tab) also has some details about the filming of the film, which is scheduled for this summer and will include work at the historic Palace of Versailles in France.
Working alongside Depp on the project will be Maïwenn Le Besco, known simply in France as Maïwenn. She will direct and star in the film, which will be a biopic of Jeanne Bécu’s life.
Bécu, who grew up in poverty as the illegitimate daughter of an impoverished seamstress, went on to rise at the court of Louis XV to become his last official mistress.
To star alongside the duo are Pierre Richard and Noémie Lvovsky.
Analysis: A risky move for Netflix?
When speaking with , the Netflix spokesperson was keen to emphasize that the streaming giant is not offering any money to the project and that it will only be available in France. It’s not Netflix putting its arm around Depp and ushering him back into the spotlight, otherwise you’d think its executives would be putting their hands in their pockets.
Following the end of his trial, which unfolded in brutal and unpleasant detail in televised proceedings, Depp spent the summer touring with veteran rocker Jeff Beck, but there was already speculation about when he would return to acting and in what kind of situation. . project.
vanity fair (opens in new tab) quotes a film industry source in their report on the announcement of Depp’s involvement in the project, who told the magazine, “I think only one studio will hire him. studio system so that it is acceptable to hire him again.”
It looks like Depp made that precise move. An independent film, shot in Europe far from the outskirts of his trial, as a first step backwards. If Vanity Fair’s source proves correct and a Hollywood studio hires Depp once again, only time will tell.