There are always concerns when animals are involved in movie productions; making sure that both humans and wildlife are unharmed should be a top priority on any set. In the new movie The Rum Diary, adapted from legendary Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s novel, there were two scenes of particular concern to the production — the cockfights.

“The roosters are an essential element to Sala’s character,” says production designer Chris Seagers. Sala, played by Michael Rispoli, is a news photographer at the San Juan Star who strikes a friendship with the main character Kemp in the movie. “Bruce was always very concerned about how this would be shot. It was never about seeing a fight.

It was about showing the ballet of their movements, the artistry of it all. The birds we used were exquisite, and beautifully kept. We did a lot of research about what we wanted to photograph. We needed to see the birds leaping into the air, and spreading their wings.”

A lot of work went into making sure that the filmmakers could achieve the shots they wanted without any harm coming to the birds in any way. In order to achieve that goal, the production invited the American Humane Association to supervise all the animal action including the cockfighting.

Officer Laura Sweet worked on the initial training period, and the first sequence, and they also brought in Officer Gina Johnson to assist her in the first scene because of the number of animals involved. Avian Veterinarian Antonio Riveras was brought in to monitor the birds for stress and heat exhaustion.

“It was very important for us to adhere to the American Humane Association’s guidelines,” says executive producer Patrick McCormick. “We wanted to make sure that no animals were harmed in any way. We had to start figuring out ways to stage these cockfighting events so that we were totally sure the birds were safe.

We wanted everyone involved to be assured that their health and welfare were never endangered.” “In a cockfight, the bird’s natural spurs are clipped before the fight,” explains McCormick. “They are replaced with artificial metal ones, so that every bird has the same size spurs, and the spurs are what cause the injuries. We created soft rubber spurs to replace them.

The other thing we talked about was their beaks. We figured out we could tape them without impairing their breathing, as long as it was for a very short period of time. Initially, we thought this would be sufficient. However, we learnt from the A.H.A., that it was an issue if the birds touched in any way because this constituted fighting,” says McCormick.

“So, in addition to the rubber spurs and taping of their beaks, we had to figure out how to restrain the birds.” Laura Sweet from the A.H.A. worked with trainer Eric Colon for several weeks to devise a method of creating the shots without the birds ever touching.

With the aid of the costume department and prop-master Drew Petrotta, and costume designer Colleen Atwood, they devised an ingenious harness which fitted under the feathers. The harnesses were then attached to monofilaments, which allowed the animal wranglers to control the birds so they never got close to each other.

The scenes were closely monitored by the A.H.A reps and by first assistant director Peter Kohn. They only allowed seconds for each take, and only one or two takes for each shot. The hard work paid off and the filmmakers were thrilled with the footage. All the roosters used in the movie have been relocated to a life of ease on a ranch in Canyon Country, near Los Angeles.

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Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky and is best known as the godfather of Gonzo Journalism. Taking the New Journalism of the 60s one step further, Thompson went to the heart of the action by becoming the star of his own reporting — whether by cycling with America’s toughest motorcycle gang, the Hell’s Angels, or downing a frightening collection of psychedelics in the name of the American Dream.

He contributed articles to Rolling Stone for many years, and ran a weekly sports column for ESPN Online before eventually taking his own life in 2005. The Rum Diary had lain forgotten in Thompson’s basement for many years and if not for a fateful visit by Johnny Depp to Thompson’s house, the novel may have never been published.

“I came across The Rum Diary with Hunter, almost accidentally,” Depp relates.  “We were in his house in Woody Creek downstairs in what was called The War Room, and there were just these endless boxes of stuff. I didn’t know what they were, so I started just pulling things out.

I stumbled upon what was called ‘The Rum Diary’ and he goes, ‘Oh Jesus, yeah, I wrote that in 1959,’ and I said, ‘Jesus Christ, let’s read this, let’s see what it’s about.’ So we get it out, started reading it. He said, ‘Maybe I should finally publish it.’ I was like, ‘Yeah you should publish it, it’s great.’’’

By that time, however, Thompson’s style had considerably developed from his early writing and returning to his young voice was a challenge. Deborah Fuller, who was Thompson’s secretary for 23 years, recalls, “When it came time to publish The Rum Diary, an editor from Simon and Schuster worked with Hunter, but they really had to control him.

He had evolved into a whole new writer, and he was embarrassed about some of it and wanted to change it. We all told him that was crazy. He wrote it when he was about twenty. To change it and make this young man’s novel more like his later Gonzo-style would have ruined the flavor.”

Before Thompson had even begun prepping the book to finally see the light of day, a movie adaptation was already cooking in his and Depp’s minds. “From that [first] conversation,” Depp says, “within about 20 minutes we were already talking about the movie rights and how we should produce this film together.”

Thompson’s suicide in 2005 kept him from seeing The Rum Diary brought to the big screen. Producer Graham King wanted to make sure that his legacy would be preserved with the film. “The film is a tribute to Hunter. It was amazing to have the opportunity to get involved in one of his stories, and who better to work with than Johnny Depp?”

Depp had been a long-time fan of director Bruce Robinson and initially approached him to direct another Hunter S. Thompson adaptation. “I met Johnny Depp about twenty years ago because of my first film, Withnail and I,” recalls Robinson “We got together in London. He asked me if I would direct Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

At the time I had decided that I didn’t really want to direct again. However, if I did, it would only be from a script I had written. By that time, it was too late; the screenplay had already been written.” Depp was determined to have Robinson and Thompson’s creative spirits eventually cross. As he puts it, “Bruce was always somehow in the back of my mind, and when The Rum Diary came up I said, ‘what about Bruce Robinson?’ Hunter said, ‘That’s the ticket, man.’

Hunter was truly into it, especially the fact that we had to get Bruce out of retirement!” “Then later, Johnny sent me a copy of ‘The Rum Diary’ and asked if I would be interested in adapting it into a screenplay,” says Robinson. “It was a nightmare at first. I couldn’t see how it could be adapted as a film as it has two lead characters, Yeamon and Kemp.

It was a long time before I realized what Hunter had actually done, which was to split himself down the middle into two characters. When I realized Yeamon was just a facet of Kemp, one of them had to go. Once I had solved that problem, I could see a way to write it, and decided to have a go.”

Depp recalls Robinson’s epiphany with equal enthusiasm. “Finally it came to him, which none of us ever recognized. Weirdly, Hunter said something to me years before that I hadn’t remembered. Early on, Hunter had said, ‘I should have you know I should have made these guys one, I should have made them me—but I made them both me.’ That’s what Bruce did. He had the instinct to make that happen.”

“The way I approached the adaptation of ‘The Rum Diary’ was to absorb what the book was, and then rewrite it,” Robinson says. “There are only three lines that Hunter wrote in the whole script. I wasn’t trying to copy him. You can’t because he was so unique, but hopefully, I was writing in his vernacular.”

Depp says that is exactly what Thompson wanted all along. “Bruce definitely went off page in terms of the book, but Hunter wanted to. He always wanted to. Hunter even talked to me about maybe taking this story to Cuba!” In addition to combining the characters of Kemp and Yeamon into one, the screenplay departs from the book in the way it deals with the representation of Puerto Rico.

“That’s a fundamental change in the movie, because the whole film is in support of the underdog side of Puerto Rico,” says Robinson. “It’s critical of the people who have come there to make a fast buck. Sanderson’s approach is almost like the old-time British imperialists, who pillaged a country for what they could get and then moved on.”

It took Robinson about five to six months to write the screenplay. “When I got the word back that they were going to make it, I was thrilled,” says Robinson. “However, when they asked me to direct it, I wasn’t, because I didn’t want to,” he laughs. “After the last unmentionable film I directed, I was really determined that I would never do it again.

I don’t like being in the public eye. I much prefer being locked in a room with a typewriter doing what I do, which is to write. So it wouldn’t have been difficult to say no, but because I liked the script myself, and because it was for Johnny, whom I like enormously, I thought I would give it a shot.”

King couldn’t have been more pleased with Robinson’s return to the director’s chair. “He’s got such an easygoing, come-what-may attitude behind the monitor. The DP was actually saying, ‘Maybe you should try this,’ and Bruce said ‘No, I’ve got it. I’ve got what I need. The movie’s in my head, so I know in the edit room I’m not going to be using this scene; why are we going to shoot it?’

That’s music to a producer’s ears! He commanded that crew so well. He’s such a soft spoken, gentle guy. Everyone loved and respected him.”

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With nine Academy Award Nominations and two time Academy Award wins, costume designer Colleen Atwood seems the perfect choice for the upcoming period movie The Rum Diary. According to the leading man Johnny Depp, producer Patrick McCormick, and co-producer Peter Kohn, she was the natural choice.

“I’ve done several films with Colleen over the years and she is someone who is obviously very passionate about what she brings to a film,” says McCormick. “Particularly to a film like this. Aside from dressing the lead actors, every extra means something to her. Nothing is throwaway.

Their clothes are carefully selected and they are custom-fitted. When you see those deep wide shots of distant background, you will see how well those extras are dressed.” “I’ve known Johnny since Edward Scissorhands, which was a long time ago,” says Atwood. “We’ve all sort of grown up together.

I have a lot of respect for Johnny and his sister, Christi Dembrowski, one of the producers of the film. We are like a weird, big family, really. Johnny makes you feel that way. He’s somebody that has definitely done it his way and in a unique way and I really love him for that.”

“What Colleen does for me, ultimately, is that she defines characters even before you have a great handle on your character,” says Depp. “She understands it well before you do.” “There was a minimal amount of clothing for the principal actors in the film,” says Atwood. “Kemp, Johnny Depp’s character, basically arrives with a suitcase and lives out of it the whole movie, so we kept his wardrobe very small.

He went shopping a couple of times and picked up a couple of extra t-shirts, but basically he wears a lot of the same things over and over.” The movie follows journalist Paul Kemp as he escapes an Eisenhower America only to fall for rum and a beautiful woman in 1960s Puerto Rico. His rival is the girl’s fiance, businessman Sanderson.

“Sanderson is much more glamorous and we have many more clothes for Aaron Eckhart,” says Atwood. “Every time we see him, he is turned out in a similar look, but definitely a casual, glamorous kind of at-ease-with-with-money person. Chenault is a sort of showpiece for Sanderson and very much his animal.

She is dressed and jeweled by him in the latest European fashions, and the high glamour side of Puerto Rico at the time.” Adds Depp, “Everything that she did for Chenault was textural but at the same time created moods that would give the viewer a certain kind of emotion.”

“Then we have the other characters that Kemp meets in the world of journalism,” Atwood says. “Sala is the quintessential really good guy who is down on his luck and who will never leave. He wears the local Guevara shirt, which is sort of a uniform of the Caribbean. However, he doesn’t iron it as often as he should, or wash it.

He lives with his chickens and has, in his own way, found his world. Sala’s clothes are layered up. More sweat was added every day, some real, some fake. It started to look better the more that it was worn.” “Moberg, played by Giovanni Ribisi, is a man that’s definitely crossed the line,” laughs Atwood. “He’s gone over the edge, and he’s living on the other side.

He is definitely not aware of physical cleanliness or tidiness. His clothes are almost like an artistic uniform for him. He doesn’t really know whether he’s indoors or outdoors.” “For Giovanni’s costume, I just found really old falling-apart clothes and used them,” says Atwood. “Since he wasn’t stunt-doubled or anything, it wasn’t a huge issue.

He basically wore the same thing every day in the movie. We didn’t wash it. It was alive!” she laughs. One of the most labor-intensive scenes for Atwood was the movie’s dazzling Carnival shoot. “We had to pre-fit over 800 costumes,” recalls Atwood. “We were supposed to be in St. Thomas, not in Puerto Rico. So we were trying to get a much more ethnic island feel to it.

We had a mixture of white tourists, local people with a Spanish background, and Caribbean people of African descent.” “The Caribbean costumes were really a mixture of a lot of things,” says Atwood. “We based our research on the real Carnival they have on St. Thomas. However, we made it more cinematic, created our own masks and added more characters.

Bruce wanted stilt walkers and a few things like that, so we made them up as we went. It was a bit nerve-wracking. It’s not designed in my normal style of working. But it was supposed to look very homemade and I think that we succeeded in making it that way.”

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Getting the props right on a film is extremely important; especially if the goal is to depict a historical period of time. The production team behind the new movie The Rum Diary, written and directed by Bruce Robinson and starring Johnny Depp, took great care as they prepared for shooting the film that takes place in Puerto Rico circa 1960.

“We did a lot of research particularly regarding the photographs and written material. We wanted to get the details right,” says prop-master Drew Petrotta. In addition to the usual reference sources, they used many of the story’s creator, Hunter S. Thompson’s own photographs, many of which featured the writer with his pipe, his typewriter and various bottles of liquor.

The original novel is loosely based on Thompson’s experiences as a journalist in Puerto Rico at the time. “The most important prop in the movie was the typewriter,” says Petrotta. “We probably looked at about twenty different ones before we found one everyone was happy with. There was quite a range of typewriters during that period.

We were looking for something that Johnny was comfortable with, that Bruce liked aesthetically, and that was similar to what Hunter would have used.” “However, I think it is the sunglasses that we notice most in this movie,” says Petrotta. “Johnny came to me with a pair that he liked and we duplicated them many times.

He really has an eye for what he looks good in. Also, the character of Paul Kemp smokes quite a bit in this movie. Johnny doesn’t smoke so we created period packaging and filled them with herbal cigarettes that don’t contain any tobacco.” A key element in the style of The Rum Diary was its use of period cars.

Picture car coordinator Steve Mann was brought in to work with local Rick Gonzalez, and together they assembled the wide array of cars needed. Mann was pleasantly surprised to find that the island had a wealth of cars from that period, in very good condition. “We found a Lincoln Town car, and some really nicely restored old cars,” says Mann.

“Of course we had to age them down a bit to make them look old and dirty, but we cleaned them up before we gave them back to their owners,” he says smiling. “We found the red 1958 Chevy Corvette on the island,” Mann says, “and then had to match it to the 1959 model, which Sanderson drives in the film.

The two models are very similar. There are just some chrome pieces and the hood that are different. It’s got a powerful engine. It’s all made of fiberglass and it goes really fast,” he laughs. “It’s a pretty sexy car and there is a big scene revolving around it.”

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Upcoming release The Rum Diary, starring Johnny Depp and Aaron Eckhart, explores the breathtaking scenery of 1960s Puerto Rico as the story of the drunken journalist Paul Kemp and his dealings at a newspaper unfolds in the Central American territory.

Production designer Chris Seagers and his team embarked on an intensive period of research into the area. “Puerto Rico, at that time, was a really depressed place,” says Seagers. “It was very poor, and the main industry there was agriculture. However, American developers were beginning to move in, bringing the oil refineries and pharmaceutical companies.

The Puerto Ricans were being pushed aside in the name of progress, which was actually pure greed. That’s what Bruce wanted to capture. It was a pretty unique transitional period. You are leaving the post-war era and entering the 60s.”

“Chris is a magnificent artist,” Depp states. “He was on the money every single time; everything down to the finest detail just was Puerto Rico, 1960.” Producer Graham King goes further: “Chris would build a set and we would use that set maybe three or four times, but the audience will never know! He’d turn it around dress it differently, etc. It was very creative, very guerilla-style filmmaking.”

Capturing location photography was critical for both the film’s director Bruce Robinson and Depp. “We didn’t shoot on sound stages because Bruce Robinson just doesn’t feel it,” Depp says. “He’s an animal of the street. He likes to be in an environment that’s not necessarily structured for cinema, but for feeling and emotion.

It’s what you’d call available stimulus. Bruce was pretty adamant about the idea of shooting in locations and there’s nothing better for an actor than to be in that world.” The principal location that Robinson was looking for was businessman Sanderson’s beach house, which represented the essence of the story.

It had to be the quintessential Caribbean paradise, aquamarine water, sugar white sand, waving palm trees, and beautiful sunsets. The film did not have a large budget for construction. However, it was soon obvious that the only way to get the combination of an exquisite beach house and the glorious beach location was to build it.

The location department was fortunate enough to find the perfect spot at the Governor’s beach property, located just outside the town of Fajardo in Puerto Rico. “The concept behind the design of Sanderson’s house was that the first time Kemp walks through the door he sees that perfect horizon line.

It’s just the ocean and that house!” explains Seagers. “It’s everything he has ever dreamt of. The house, the girl, the ocean, the boat! Initially, he is in awe of the whole thing; but as we progress through the movie he becomes more and more disillusioned.” Set decorator Rosemary Brandenburg was ecstatic when she saw Sanderson’s house.

“Chris Seagers told me that he had once worked with an architect who specialized in recreating that ahead-of-the-curve 1960 style,” says Brandenburg. “It was a real tour de force of architecture and a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to dress it.”

Another notable set was the San Juan Star newspaper office, Kemp’s place of employment when he arrives on the island and where he meets most of the principal characters in the story. Finding the right location in old San Juan was key. “Bruce wanted to see some landscape, and show 1930s windows,” says Seagers.

“We were walking through Old San Juan one day and suddenly saw this 1930s building. When we went inside, we found a series of offices on the sixth floor. There were a few air conditioning units and roofs to deal with, but, for the most part, it was perfect. Our biggest concern was whether they would let us gut it, and lo and behold, they did. We took out all the walls to make it all one big space.”

The dressing of the newspaper was an intricate business for set decorator Rosemary Brandenburg. “We had a list of ten or twelve different desks that we were creating,” she says. “They were for the society columnist, the fashion reporter, the sports guy, and the business guy. We painstakingly went through archival volumes and scanned actual articles of the time to use as dressing on their desks.”

“In the movie, Kemp has been hired as a replacement to Madame Lazanga,” says Brandenburg, “so initially, the desk was fully tricked out. Madame Lazanga was purported to have been a drag queen. So when we first see the desk, it is full of astrology gear, feather boas, hats; all kinds of flamboyant stuff. When Kemp takes over, it all gets stripped away.”

In addition to the newspaper offices, one of the key visuals in the film was the printing press. Seagers was very skeptical about the prospects of finding a period printing press. “One day we heard that The San Juan Star had closed down,” says Seagers. “We tracked down the proprietor who invited us over and there it was.

It wasn’t exactly period, but printing presses have not really changed that much. It had everything we needed, the conveyor belts, even the rolls of paper. All we needed to do was to repaint it and add some details to make it more historically accurate.”

While Seagers and his team were at the printing press, they were allowed to go up to the archive office. “Incredibly,” says Seagers, “there were these wooden pallets with bound archival copies of The San Juan Star going back to the late 50s. It was all there. All the reference material we needed in one place.

Fortunately, the owner agreed to let us use the archival material for the Star newspaper office set.”

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In a time of Blu-ray, pitch-perfect visual effects and 3D, it seems oddly refreshing when a production team decide to pursue a traditional photographic direction to invoke certain old-school visual emotions.

Director of photography on the movie The Rum Diary, Dariusz Wolski, was brought onboard for the specific purpose of bringing a classic ‘look’ to the movie; “I was looking for a kind of fifties picture postcard look,” says the movie’s director Bruce Robinson. He was delighted when Dariusz Wolski agreed to shoot the picture.

“I went to Johnny’s office to meet him,” says Robinson, “and I knew instantly it was going to work. I adored him right from the start. His operator, Martin Shaer, is brilliant and incredibly inventive.” “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Dariusz on a few of the Pirates adventures,” says Johnny Depp.

“I think he’s a great painter, a painter of light in the tradition of such greats as Caravaggio. I don’t know that there’s anybody better. Dariusz is a wunderkind.” The decision to shoot on 16mm was collaborative. “We shot a lot of tests, and I really liked the way it looked” Robinson explains. “I am a great fan of hand-held cameras.

It is a much smaller camera, which really suited me for the way I wanted to shoot the film.” “We talked about shooting the film on Super 16mm and I jumped on the idea,” says  the man behind the look, Dariusz Wolski. “With all this new technology available, many people say that it’s cheaper and better.

In some ways they are right, but I wanted to prove that we could take a 16mm camera and make the film look as good, if not better, than digital. It gives you so much more flexibility. Film has much more range. We shot The Rum Diary on different locations using hardly any lights. My approach was to be minimalistic in lighting.

Not to invent anything, unless it’s come from reality. Basically, we are looking at Puerto Rico the way it was twenty, thirty years ago. The light is still the same. I wanted to stay away from a Hollywood glossy look and I thought 16mm with a bit of grain was going to add to it.  We used three 16mm lenses to shoot the whole film with no filtration.”

“We were happy to embrace the idea,” says producer Patrick McCormick. “Working with Super 16 cameras gave Dariusz portability and the opportunity to shoot hand-held. It gave us a much more mobile camera unit, much faster on their feet. We did a lot of tests,” McCormick says.

“None of us wanted to presume this was going to work. We did it one step at a time. We took it all the way through the digital inter-negative process and we were thrilled with the results.”

“Dariusz is a guy that wants to take chances and do things outside the box,” adds Depp. “When he has the opportunity to do something that’s not, let’s say, 21^st century standard, he’s beyond excited. We shot the thing in Super 16; it was amazing. It’s a callback to the home movies that we saw when we were kids, this pre-video cinematic language of the 50s, 60s even into the 70s.

I think that Dariusz was understanding on some level as a cinematographer the death of film, and tipping his hat to cinema in that sense. It was a pleasure and an honor to have gone through that with him.” Cinema-goers can enjoy this slice of cinematic heaven on October 28.

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Principal photography for The Rum Diary began in the historic and beautiful city of Old San Juan. The cast and crew stayed at the legendary Caribe Hilton, “I’d love to make every movie I do in Puerto Rico,” producer Graham King says. “My hotel was on the beach and I’d go swimming every morning!”

Old San Juan is a stop off point for many of the Caribbean cruises. Word quickly spread, among the tourists and locals alike, that Johnny Depp was in town. At first, there was just a small group of onlookers. However, after the first day’s extensive coverage in the local newspaper, the streets outside the set were lined with people anxious to see him in the flesh.

Day by day, the numbers increased and finally the security people had to cordon off the sidewalk in order to keep the fans and media out of the street. Every night at wrap, Johnny Depp walked the line of fans shaking hands and signing autographs. His fans, and the local paparazzi, were ecstatic.

Several of the kids were dressed as pirates, and Johnny spent some extra time with them as a reward for their efforts. The Rum Diary filmed many scenes in old San Juan, and once filming there was complete, the company moved to Fajardo, on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico.  The company also filmed for some time at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, the former U.S. air base.

They also filmed part of a driving sequence in El Yunque, Puerto Rico’s famous rainforest. During filming in Puerto Rico, Johnny Depp was visited by several old friends, one of whom was singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist Patti Smith. Smith kept very busy during her time there. “I very rarely just visit,” says Smith.

“If I like where I am, I always wind up becoming engaged, even abstractly. I kept a The Rum Diary diary. I took a lot of pictures, made certain observations, and wrote some songs. It’s actually been very productive for me. Being in a positive atmosphere with people focused working as one mind was great. It’s amazing how much work I’ve accomplished supposedly doing nothing.”

After reading the script of the movie on the plane, Smith was inspired to write a song. “I fell asleep reading and when I woke up, as I was clawing my way into consciousness, this little song was in my mind. I wrote it down because I had wanted to sing it as a present for Bruce [Robinsin, the director] and Johnny. Of all the viewpoints I could have taken, for some reason, I took that of Chenault’s.” This song is now in the end credits to the film.

Hunter S. Thompson, writer of the novel behind the upcoming movie, died in 2005, but Depp and Robinson were determined to keep his spirit alive on set. “One of my last efforts to salute the man was to continue on in our venture and force him even in death to be a producer,” says Depp.

“I asked that there be a chair made for Hunter with his name on it; I asked that there be a script cover made for Hunter with his name on it; I asked that there be an ashtray and a little block of a packet of Dunhills with a cigarette holder every day with a lighter, for Hunter;

I asked that there be a bottle of Chivas Regal next to his chair every day, and of course a highball glass filled with ice next to the bottle, for Hunter. We had to somehow utilize all these elements to recognize Hunter, to salute him.

Bruce and I would arrive on set every morning, saunter up to the highball glass, pour it full with Chivas Regal, dunk our fingers in, maybe take a sip and get on with the day—just to make sure that Hunter was there. And he was there. Every day, every second, every moment. For us.”

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After another stint as swashbuckle Jack Sparrow earlier this year, Johnny Depp is revisiting the world of Hunter S. Thompson in the upcoming movie ‘The Rum Diary’. He plays the main character, an alcoholic journalist looking for a change of scene. And according to the production team, there were no questions about Depp’s match for the part of Kemp.

“There’s no actor who was closer to Hunter Thompson than Johnny Depp,”  says producer Graham King. Although Paul Kemp is loosely based on Hunter S. Thompson as a young man, director Bruce Robinson wanted for the character to come out of Depp’s interpretation of Thompson, not an imitation of the writer in later years.

“I wanted Paul Kemp to be Johnny Depp playing Hunter, but not with the shorts and the bald head,” says Robinson. “The film is set in the late fifties and very early sixties, so, in a sense, this is a very straight romantic lead. For all the comedic exuberance of ‘Fear and Loathing’, this is a straight drama. Hunter was very handsome when he was young, and Johnny is an incredibly handsome leading man.”

“Johnny transformed himself into Kemp very easily,” adds King. “He adds layers and layers to a character. He makes a raised eyebrow hysterical. He’s very subtle at what he does. Bruce had the easiest job directing Johnny, because you don’t really need to tell him as an actor what to do. You don’t really need to tell him how to deliver a line, especially a comedic line.”

Depp, like Robinson, wanted to tap into the idea of Thompson as a young, unformed artist. “The way I approached it was that the character of Paul Kemp is Raoul Duke as he was learning to speak. It was like playing the same character, only 15 years before. This guy’s got something; there’s an energy burning underneath it, it’s just ready to pop up, shoot out.”

In the movie’s plot, when Kemp begins working at the San Juan Star, he immediately strikes up a friendship with Sala, the news photographer who works there. Robinson was looking for a very particular quality when he was casting this role. “I wanted someone relatively unknown, but who was a really great actor. Michael Rispoli fit the bill,” says Robinson.

“Sala is somebody who came to San Juan ten years earlier. He was a photographer, probably not without talent. He became absorbed into the place, elevated by it, and then almost destroyed by it. One of the reasons I cast Michael was that I was looking for that sense of inability to escape.

I wanted an actor who the audience would look at and think: ‘He’s not getting out of here, he can’t leave.’ A lot of the people who read for the part were superb actors, but when Kemp leaves at the end of the story, they were going with him.” “Bruce called me and said, ‘I’ve found him!’ Depp says. “As soon as I saw the tape, it was instant—that’s the guy.

He looked, sounded and felt exactly like the part of this expatriate American down in Puerto Rico, lost and trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.”

The crook of the story is the dirty businessman Sanderson, who hires Kemp to write favorably about his latest scheme. Robinson had no doubt about whom he wanted to play Sanderson. “Aaron Eckhart was my first and only choice,” he says. “He is a very good actor, and he has a kind of cruel beauty about him.

He is also a complete contrast to Johnny Depp. He is handsome in an Aryan way. Johnny is Latin handsome. Sanderson is a property developer who has attachments to the newspaper, both financially and editorially. He is utterly charming and utterly ruthless.”

Depp was impressed by Eckhart’s intense commitment to the role. “He absolutely just scrubbed us all. He took the role by the throat and went with it.”

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