Wes Anderson has earned acclaim and even some early Oscar buzz for his Cannes player Moonrise Kingdom, but the writer/director isn’t stopping to smell the roses. He’s already written the script for his next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and recently began aligning a cast for it, including one of the biggest names in the business.
Deadline Hollywood reports that Johnny Depp will star in the film. The actor is currently working on Disney’s Lone Ranger with director Gore Verbinski, but considering that there’s no timetable set up for the next “Pirates of the Caribbean” film (not to mention will take considerably less time to film), “Budapest” will probably be his follow-up project.
Last week, Anderson approached Depp for the part, the nature of which has yet to be revealed. According to Twitch, he also reached out to Angela Lansbury, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum at that time as well, though nothing has been confirmed or denied about their involvement with “Budapest.”
In addition to Depp, Owen Wilson has been attached to the film since May. Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush and Scott Rudin will produce “Budapest” alongside Anderson.