They've said all kinds of stuff about me... it doesn't bother me

JOHNNY DEPP DIRECTS A BIOPIC OF SURREALIST PAINTER MODIGLIANI. HE JOINS STARS RICCARDO SCAMARCIO AND ANTONIA DESPLAT TO DICSUSS MAVERICK PERSONALITIES. BY RACHAEL DAVIS

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WHEN Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani succumbed to tubercular meningitis at the age of 35 in Paris, he was still relatively unsuccessful in the art world.

His surrealist style wasn't received well in his lifetime. Since his death, however, the notoriously hedonistic artist has been recognised as a key figure in the modern art movement.

His story drew the attention of Al Pacino in the 1980s, who tried to get a biopic of the painter's troubled life off the ground with legendary director Martin Scorsese slated to direct, but the project became mired in years of development problems. When Pacino became too old to play Modigliani, Johnny Depp was considered for the role, but plans for the film would ultimately stall.

Now Golden Globe winner Johnny has taken up the baton to direct Modigliani - Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which follows the artist over three days in 1916. What's more, Pacino will be involved too, playing art collector Maurice Gangnat.

Johnny, known for the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean Edward Scissorhands and Donnie Brasco, is in the director's chair for the second time in his career, following 1997's The Brave, starring Marlon Brando.

"Listen, they've said all kinds of stuff about me. It doesn't bother me," says Johnny, 62, who dominated headlines in 2022 as the highly publicised defamation trial he won against his ex-wife, Amber Heard played out.

"The thing about me is I've been very, very lucky - I've learned a f*** load in this industry not just from experiences and whatnot, but having worked with unbelievably talented people."

Modigliani's story appealed to Johnny because he was so taken by the wild experimentation of the artist and his contemporaries.

"The styles they created were all so different," he says. "It must have scared the s*** out of people."