For awhile it was beginning to look like Johnny Depp's Whitey Bulger biopic, Black Mass, was going to stay in development limbo. Originally with Barry Levinson directing, and Depp as the infamous Boston mobster and Joel Edgerton co-starring, the film was shelved over salary disputes. But just last month the film resurfaced with Depp eying a return and Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) in the director's chair, and now the project is definitely back on.
Deadline reports that Depp is back in to play Bulger, while Tom Hardy is in talks to take on the role Edgerton left behind. Mark Mallouk adapted Dick Lehr and Gerald O'Neill's best-selling book, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between The FBI and The Irish Mob, chronicling Bulger's rise to power as one of the Winter Hill Gang, with murder, racketeering, and extortion part of his extensive list of offenses. Hardy will play FBI agent John Connolly, Bulger's childhood friend who was tasked with bringing down the Italian mob. Bulger helped in bringing them down, but when he was about to be prosecuted it was Connolly who tipped him off. Bulger spent 16 years on the run before he was apprehended in 2011.
Now that all the pieces are in place production will be fast-tracked for a May start.
