The Expletive-Laced, Booze-Drenched Good reputation for the 'Rum Diary' Movie

"Coming half-drunk inside a foreign place is difficult around the nerves. You've got a feeling that something is wrong, that you simply can't obtain a grip." -- Hunter S. Thompson, 'The Rum Diary' The Actor-brad Pitt and Hunter S. Thompson are relaxing in a tiki hut on Depp's property in La a fireplace is burning within the pit along with a bottle of Jack Daniels rests up for grabs. It's 1999. The superstar and also the good physician have collected to solicit potential bankers to have an adaptation of Thompson's lately released book, 'The Rum Diary.' Carol Sorensen, mind from the now defunct studio The Shooting Gallery, approaches. Pleasantries are exchanged and Depp starts reading through an excerpt in the novel. "...I lay back around the cot having a bottle of rum sitting on my navel, and plotted how you can defend myself. Basically were built with a luger, I figured, I possibly could drill the bastards. I rely on one elbow and pointed a finger in the window, seeing what type of shot I possibly could get. Perfect... " The 3 of these wallow in it, speaking, laughing, imbibing, and strategizing, without any method of knowing that it'll be another 12 years prior to the movie finally opens. For the reason that time, A-listers is going to be cast after which give up financing is going to be moved from studio to studio and something author-director, who was simply sober for six-and-a-half years, will start consuming again -- all in order to bring this boozy pre-Gonzo tale of the American journalist in Puerto Rico towards the giant screen. It's hardly the road Thompson imagined when he first made the decision to create the film. Hell, it's hardly the road he saw when he first started writing 'The Rum Diary,' almost 40 years earlier, while residing in Puerto Rico. Yes, it has been a lengthy, twisted journey for Hunter S. Thompson's first novel. Thompson, who had been in the early 20s when he authored it, would state that he wanted 'The Rum Diary' to become the "Great American Novel" -- on componen with F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Great Gatsby.' Years later, he accepted it rather grew to become "the truly amazing Puerto Rican novel," not too there's anything wrong with this. The way the 'Rum Diary' book found be is really a story by itself (one which will get an amazing telling inside a recent 'GQ' article), but let us get the storyline in 1999, twelve months following the book's release. This is when Thompson and the friend The Actor-brad Pitt started exploring the thought of making it a movie. The initial plan have been for 'The Rum Diary' to become released before 'Hell's Angels,' Thompson's gripping true-existence tale from the renegade California bike gang. But after Thompson gone to live in free airline Coast, within the mid-'60s, buddies started pushing him to complete 'Hell's Angels' rather than 'The Rum Diary.' It had been raw, emotional and fit within the New Journalism genre that individuals have been raving about. 'The Rum Diary' was, comparatively, old-fashioned -- composed within the Hemingway or Fitzgerald vernacular of yesteryear. Eventually, the novel wound up in Thompson's basement, gathering dust. It might be a long time later before someone happened upon it -- though who that somebody was remains dependent on debate. "A lot of people have stated to possess found the initial manuscript," states Anita Thompson, who had been married to Hunter throughout the final many years of his existence. "He borrowed it to ['60 Minutes' correspondent] Erectile dysfunction Bradley at some point, decades ago. There have been also different versions from the manuscript, and so i think Johnny [Depp] is correct in saying he'd found one version from it. Doug [Brinkley, a historian dealing with Hunter] thought it was. [Author-investigator] Shelby Stadler thought it was. Various assistants thought it was.Inch Regardless of who "discovered" it, there is soon an over-all consensus that Thompson should publish it, then possibly transform it into a film, with The Actor-brad Pitt starring because the youthful journalist Paul Kemp. Depp was an apparent option for the role -- he'd already performed Hunter (underneath the alias of Raoul Duke) in 1998's 'Fear and Loathing in Vegas,' a film with different number of articles Thompson wrote for 'Rolling Stone' magazine within the seventies. To check out the part, Johnny had moved directly into Hunter's basement in Colorado, where he happened over the 'Rum Diary' manuscript. With heavy curiosity about it and among the greatest stars in the world in the corner, Thompson made the decision to forge ahead using the film. To obtain the right person to really make it, he and Depp started holding court in the actor's house in California. Eventually, they chosen Carol Sorensen. Things would soon have a turn for that surreal, because they frequently did when Thompson was involved. Carol had decided to help finance the film, however the slow pace of progress started to irritate the writer. Then, in The month of january 2001, Carol received a now infamous fax from Thompson: "Okay, you lazy bitch. I am getting fed up with this waterhead fuckaround that you are doing with 'The Rum Diary.' We're not even spinning our wheels strongly. It's such as the whole project got surrended to zombies who reside in card board boxes underneath the Hollywood Freeway. I appear to be the sole person who's doing anything about getting this movie made. I've put together Depp, Benecio del Toro, Kaira Pitt, Nick Nolte, along with a fine film writer from England named Michael Thomas ... And when you do not make a move QUICK [sic], you are likely to destroy an excellent idea. I am inside a mood to reduce yr. [sic] fucking hands off." Was Thompson going to bolt? Was the film in serious danger of not made? On first (and 2nd, and third) reads, the letter sounds almost fatally threatening. But Anita Thompson and Sorensen herself recall it as being a small bump within the road. "That's, in ways, a hug from Hunter. He was serious, and simultaneously, he cared enough to take time to write instructions, the industry sign that it was vital to him," states Anita, who'll turn to further her late husband's legacy using the soon-to-be-released Gonzo Foundation. "But he wanted this method to become fun. Then when it stopped being fun and found a grinding halt, he [did] such things as that to kick it into action. Sorensen, talking to filmmaker Wayne Ewing, also made a decision to accentuate the positive. "[Hunter] never was rude, lectureous -- he would be a chivalrous romantic guy ... [We] were built with a difference of opinion whether Michael Thomas was the best film writer for 'the Rum Diary,' which was a large area of the problem. But ... I'd an enjoyable experience with Hunter." When the fax's purpose ended up being to right the ship, however, it unsuccessful. Eventually, Benecio del Toro, Nick Nolte and Josh Hartnett all delivered the project, as did Sorensen and also the Shooting Gallery. Then, in 2005, Hunter S. Thompson put a gun to his mind and committed suicide. He was 67 years of age and affected by health issues. Inside a suicide note subsequently released in 'Rolling Stone,' he authored, "Relax -- This will not hurt." Buddies and family collected at his home in Woodsy Creek, Colorado to transmit him served by an effective salute. Thompson's dying only increased Depp's resolve to recognition his late friend through getting the film made. Right after the funeral, producer Graham King acquired the privileges towards the book, and things started moving again. Then, in 2007, Johnny employed Bruce Robinson, author-director from the alcohol-drenched cult classic 'Withnail & I,' to create and, ultimately, direct the film. "[Johnny] sent me it, and that i see clearly, known as him up and stated, 'Yeah, I'll write the script,'" Robinson informs Moviefone. "4 or 5 several weeks later, he was back at risk saying, 'Are you likely to direct it?' I'd determined and guaranteed myself I wasn't likely to ever try to be considered a film director again. Period. To become a cajolled with a celebrity into pointing something would be a really rare and unusual experience. But Johnny might have whomever the hell he likes, cheap he am certain that I will be the right director for this -- ultimately you acquiesce to that particular.Inch It's not hard to understand why Depp am insistent. Though he'd been sober for six . 5 years, Robinson wrote and directed among the great alcohol-fueled adventure tales ever: 1987's 'Withnail & I,' whose title character, performed by Richard E. Grant, scandalizes the patrons of the quiet café by standing and announcing, "We would like the best wines open to humanity. And that we would like them here, and that we would like them now!" Try because he might, however, Robinson could not appear to locate a distance to the script. He then had so what can simply be referred to like a Gonzo epiphany: This rum-drenched story needed a jolt of electricity, and the only method it would have it was through alcohol. "I had been travelling during my writing room for around per month before I possibly could obtain a hook on [the storyline], and that i recognized which i needed to visit. I needed to return into that devote my mind. I desired to have the madness again a little," Robinson states. "[Even though my mind says, 'Don't visit, don't visit,A the creative side of me says, 'If you do not visit, you cannot write this.' There is no words in bottles, however it softens up a little." Robinson could drink, finish the script after which quit. It's as though Thompson's spirit was presiding within the writing process, withholding inspiration until Robinson was prepared to risk his sanity -- as well as his existence. Soon, the script was finished. Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard and Giovanni Ribisi became a member of the cast, and also the film started production in Puerto Rico last year. 2 yrs later, Thompson's vision has again been taken on celluloid, his rabid curiosity showing itself off to a different generation of fans. But make no mistake: 'The Rum Diary' isn't any 'Fear and Loathing Part 2.' You will find no lizards moving up Depp's leg or imaginary bats beating their wings in the face. The novel, in the end, was written before Hunter's Gonzo days, when he was still being trying to puzzle out who he was and what he wanted in existence. It is a portrait of the guy near something profound, and potentially harmful towards the establishment. Precisely what it's, he -- or, more particularly, Paul Kemp -- can't quite make sure. But every bottle of rum, glass of vino and vicious, cursing tirade appears to hint in the answer. [Photo: FilmDistrict] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook RELATED