Johnny Depp will star as notorious gangster Whitey Bulger in “Black Mass,” an upcoming film that “Rain Man” director Barry Levinson will direct, TheWrap said.
The film’s title stems from the New York Times bestseller “Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob." Written by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill, the film chronicles a gangster who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for more than a decade and was also an FBI informant.
Bulger, who served as the basis for Jack Nicholson’s character in “The Departed,” was the brother of a state senator and one of the most famous criminals in Boston history.
Mark Mallouk wrote a new adaptation of the books after Bulger was captured in Santa Monica in 2011 at the age of 81. Boston native Ben Affleck has his own project in the works with fellow Bostonian Matt Damon likely to play Bulger, but this film will enter production first.
Depp, who will appear on screens this summer in “The Lone Ranger,” was supposed to star next in “Transcendence,” the directorial debut of Wally Pfister. Pfister has been Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer on films like “The Dark Knight” and “Inception.”
