Johnny Depp Considering Pancho Villa Role

By our guest blogger, Kristen Lopez

When it comes to Hollywood's hardest-working actors, there's no denying that Johnny Depp is among them. A glance at his IMDB profile lists six projects in various states of development, and according to Variety, he's added one more. The magazine states that he's in “advanced negotiations” to star as Mexican bandit Pancho Villa in the film "Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman with Six Fingers." The story is based on the biographical novel “The Friends of Pancho Villa” and is set to be helmed by Serbian director Emir Kusturica.

Due to Depp's already packed schedule, the movie isn't set to go before cameras until 2011, despite a completed script by Kusturica's long-time collaborator Gordan Mihic. The Spanish language biopic has also nabbed actress Salma Hayek in an undisclosed role, as Depp's co-star. An intriguing side-note is that the film is that Depp and the rest of the cast will be speaking Spanish in the film.

Depp flexed a bit of his Spanish speaking-prowess in Robert Rodriguez's "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" back in 2003, which also starred Hayek although the two weren't in any scenes together. Though news on the storyline is slim, sources at Variety offered a glimpse by noting that Villa was “an early 20th century bandit who became a guerrilla fighter and a hero to the poor.” If anything, this film could be a Latin Robin Hood type tale that should suit Depp nicely.

Until it appears on the scene, Depp can be seen as John Dillinger in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" on DVD next Tuesday. And he's also playing the role of the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," set to hit theaters March 5, 2010.