‘Tourist’ shake-up: Worthington out, Depp in?

I haven’t given much thought to The Tourist since it was still a Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) project with Tom Cruise interested. Since then, star Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation, Avatar) and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) expressed interest while Angelina Jolie remained attached.

Tonight however, Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit report in THR that Johnny Depp is now in negotiations along with director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men).

The Tourist is a remake of the 2005 French flick Anthony Zimmer, a thriller about a female agent who uses an unsuspecting tourist as bait in the hunt for a criminal who also happens to be her former lover.

With production on the film scheduled to begin next year, would a Depp signing really mean he’s not going to do Pirates of the Caribbean 4? The sequel is also supposed to begin in 2010 and Depp’s interest has reportedly cooled following the ouster of his pal Dick Cook from Disney.

Recent non-answers on the subject from Jerry Bruckheimer have been interpreted as optimism that Depp would return.

I’m trying to think of a single reason to see another Pirates movie without Depp and I’m drawing a big blank.

Filed under: Development, Rumors
Tags: Alfonso Cuaron, Bharat Nalluri, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Johnny Depp, Sam Worthington, The Tourist, Tom Cruise