‘City of Lies’: Johnny Depp Drama Pulled From Release Schedule a Month Before It Was Supposed to Hit Theaters
Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker’s film “City of Lies” will no longer hit theaters on September 7. Distributor Global Road Entertainment removed the film from the release calendar, but hopes to set a new date before 2018 ends. A source close to the production confirmed that cause was the current climate surrounding Depp.
Last month, “City of Lies” location manager Gregg “Rocky” Brooks sued Depp; the film’s director, Brad Furman (“The Lincoln Lawyer”); and production companies Good Films and Infinitum Nihil, claiming Depp punched him onset on April 13, 2017. Per the California Superior Court paperwork, Depp was angry that Brooks brought filming to a stop when their shooting permits had expired. Right at that moment, Depp had intended to direct a long scene himself.
The three-time Oscar nominee has been the subject of much unflattering recent press: Also this summer, he settled a fraud lawsuit he had brought against his former managers and was portrayed in a negative light by a Rolling Stone profile that quickly went viral. In 2016, Depp’s now-ex-wife, Amber Heard, also filed a restraining order against him, claiming to be the victim of his verbal and physical abuse; as part of a libel case against the U.K. publication The Sun, Depp submitted paperwork last week claiming Heard had punched him twice at her 30th birthday dinner, accusations the “Aquaman” actress denies.
Based on Randall Sullivan’s book “LAbyrinth,” “City of Lies” was poised to be the year’s second major project focused on the late-’90s killings of rappers Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notoroius B.I.G. USA Networks launched the 10-part series “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G” this February. This tale cast Depp as a retired LAPD detective investigating the crimes with Whitaker’s character, a journalist.
Depp will still land on the big screen this fall courtesy of Warner Bros.’ “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” out November 16.
