Once slated to star, Depp has now moved into a producer role on Shantaram, seeking Edgerton to take on the lead role. An adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' thinly-veiled memoir the story centers on "an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of India and eventually uses gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan." Eric Roth wrote the earlier draft of the script, which had a lot of hype back when Peter Weir was circling the director's chair. Mira Nair was briefly attached but the project died soon after due to Depp's busy schedule.
A new director will need to be found now that the film is back on again, but securing an actor like Edgerton would make that a much easier task. Drugs, con men, multiple identities, globe-hopping...Shantaram seems to have it all. [Deadline]
