Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz are joining forces again for Day Drinker, a thriller will be helmed by Marc Webb for Lionsgate.
The company commences international sales on the title this week at the American Film Market. It is one of his most public efforts to come back to Hollywood after several scandals that emerged in his messy divorce with the Hollywood actress Amber Heard. The actor in recent years starred in the French period drama Jeanne du Barry last year and directed the period indie Modi: I did see Three Days on the Wing of Madness that was performed at the Rome Film Festival but those were not commercial plays and were produced with European investors.
More to the point, Drinker slots perfectly in the bankable action paradigm and the players to match. Riding behind the wheel are Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, producers of Thunder Road’s Thunder Road, and the John Wick series for Lionsgate. The Tomorrow War, Free Guy, and Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners scribe Adam Kolbrenner is also on board as the producer along with Zach Dean. Dean, who has positioned himself as an action star with Tomorrow War, Fast X and Scott Derrickson’s thriller The Gorge in the works, penned the original spec script.
A cruise ship bartender befriends a mysterious day drinker on holiday—for both of them to get drawn into a world of crime, and a shared past.
“Day Drinker is marked by a highly commercial concept as well as by utterly outlandish plot turns and the whole thing is set in a brilliant universe There is no one who could film that universe like Marc or two actors who could embody the main elements of the roles better than Johnny And Penélope, Day Drinker” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said in the statement
Chelsea Kujawa is handling the project from Lionsgate. Dan Freedman handled the buys for the studio.
It is the second recent joint venture between Lionsgate and 30WEST, who also partnered on Power Ballad, a music-infused comedy, helmed by John Carney with Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas on board. It is currently in post-production 30WEST will also executive produce Drinker.
Drinker will mark the fourth time that Depp and Cruz have worked together, after Blow, Pirates of the Caribbean: For instance, Margin Call; On Stranger Tides and Murder on the Orient Express.
Webb is the director who shot to fame with a film made at Sundance and was then handed the reins for Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He’s the man attached to a Snow White film live-action film which is being developed by Disney studios.
Depp’s management includes Range Media Partners and attorney Lisa Nitti and, on the other side, CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Kuranda Management represents Cruz.
Webb’s agents are CAA, and the production companies Lichter, Grossman and Dean are also represented by CAA, Kolbrenner’s Lit Entertainment Group, and attorney Andrew Hurwitz.
