First Look: ‘The Rum Diary’ Trailer with Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary
Johnny Depp in 'The Rum Diary' - © FilmDistrict

Johnny Depp’s third film of 2011, The Rum Diary, is heading to theaters on October 26th, and the popular actor’s showing no signs of slowing down. Rango rode into theaters in March and May’s release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides showed Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is just as popular now as when he first donned the pirate gear for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. But Depp couldn’t have anticipated having three films to promote in 2011 as The Rum Diary was filmed way back in early 2009.

With The Rum Diary, Depp’s revisiting the world of Hunter S Thompson (he previously starred in the author’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) by tackling the lead role in the film adaptation of Thompson’s first book.

The Plot:
Based on the debut novel by Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp). Tiring of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper, The San Juan Star, run by downtrodden editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked life of the island, Paul soon becomes obsessed with Chenault (Amber Heard), the wildly attractive Connecticut-born fiancée of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart).

Sanderson, a businessman involved in shady property development deals, is one of a growing number of American entrepreneurs who are determined to convert Puerto Rico into a capitalist paradise in service of the wealthy. When Kemp is recruited by Sanderson to write favorably about his latest unsavory scheme, the journalist is presented with a choice: to use his words for the corrupt businessmen’s financial benefit, or use them to take the bastards down.