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Post by The Symbolic Sacrifice on Jan 27, 2005 20:02:15 GMT -5
This is from the Shantaram website.. (lots of references to CATCF) www.shantaram.com just click on the homepage and go to the dropdown 'news' section. After making the successful bid for the movie rights to Shantaram, Johnny Depp invited me to visit him in London. Took me a nanosecond, yaar, to pack a grip and pick up the First Class ticket he left for me at the British Airways desk in Melbourne. A limo picked me up at Heathrow and dropped me at a superb boutique hotel, The Baglioni, near Kensington High Street (Oh yes, Mr. Depp is very definitely a Class Act). When I met the man himself, he was kitted out for the Willie Wonka role in Tim Burton's refacimento of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate factory. He looked surreal: a crimson Valiant vision of velvet-elegance with a hint of mischief's menace in the electronic smile (you'll see what I mean, when the movie releases in 005). Then he shook my hand - warm, strong, painter-musician grip - and took 90 seconds to set me free in the mansion of his heart. What can I tell you? All of Johnny's fans ( a considerable number of them have contacted me in recent weeks) will be delighted but not surprised to hear that he's just about the nicest guy on the smeep planet. He's generous, considerate, modest, brave, intelligent, good-hearted, creative, funny, gentle, wise, loving, loyal, hard-working, and almost unbearably cool. Watching him work, on the set of Tim Burton's C and the CF, was an education in itself. The total professional, Johnny puts passion and intensity into every take, and is always in the moment. No less important, it seemed to me, was the way that he brought so much affectionate communication to every other actor in each scene, and extended that warmth to every member of the crew. It was a happy, positive set, and I put that down to Johnny's art, and his good heart, and to the sensitive brilliance of his friend, the wonderful Tim Burton. pic of meeting - JD and GDR
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Post by The High Flyer on Jan 27, 2005 21:55:19 GMT -5
"SS!! SS!! LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT!!" HF yelled, running into the thread with a thick book in her hands. By the time she was a few feet away, SS realizes its "Shantaram". I haven't started reading yet, but I will in a moment before I go to sleep. I got it yesterday after much anxiety as the person at the register thought it was sold out. Turned out there was one more copy left. I would ahve started reading but I'm midway in another book ("Che", a biography about Ernesto "Che" Guevara) But I decided to start reading Shantaram tonight. By the way you speak of it, I CAN'T WAIT!
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Post by The Symbolic Sacrifice on Jan 27, 2005 22:40:33 GMT -5
I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did HF. You'll see Johnny in this part the whole time you read it. I'm into it for the second time..
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Post by The High Flyer on Jan 30, 2005 10:42:56 GMT -5
I've just started as I only have time to read a few minutes before I go to sleep, and I'm only up to the part when he's on the bus and speaks to those two Canadian fellows, and they're asking if he wants to share a room with them It's already interesting up to the point where I'm at, AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE
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Post by The Symbolic Sacrifice on Feb 10, 2005 4:45:51 GMT -5
This is from the Herald Sun (Australian newspaper) It's cool bahamas By Claire Sutherland and Nui Te Koha Melbourne author Greg Roberts is off to the Bahamas in June to be a house guest of Johnny Depp. Depp is to play the lead role of Lin in the movie version of Roberts' 940-page memoir, Shantaram. The author will spend six weeks at Chateau Depp putting the finishing touches on the first draft of the screenplay while Depp works on Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. Depp and an alliance of United States production companies won an auction for the rights to Roberts' best-seller for a reported $2.5 million. Roberts, speaking from New Zealand, where he is on a speaking tour, says Depp impressed him with his integrity, insistence that Roberts write the screenplay and, of course, the highest bid. Roberts spent three weeks with Depp in London after the auction. "He is an almost unbearably cool human being," Roberts says. "Apart from my dad and my brother, he's the nicest guy I've ever met. What you see is what you get." Roberts, who changed his name from Smith, was serving a 23-year sentence for armed robbery at Pentridge Prison when he escaped in 1980. He fled to India and ended up working as a forger for the Bombay mafia, all the while running a makeshift slum medical clinic. He also had a stint as a gunrunner in Afghanistan, an actor in Bollywood and eventually worked in a high security jail in Germany. He was extradited to Australia and served out his sentence. The film version of his book starts with his arrival in India. Interiors will be shot in Los Angeles and Morocco is likely to double for Afghanistan. Depp and Roberts are pushing for Indian scenes to be shot in India, but Roberts says he doesn't care if Depp plays the character as an Australian. "He wants to," Roberts says. "I've told him that's not important to me. It doesn't matter if the character is Australian or Chinese. I wrote what I believe to be a universal character." Cutting the book down to a two-hour screenplay has been a challenge, particularly with Depp's insistence that so much of the story remain intact. "When you're writing a book it's a question of what you put in," Roberts says. "When you're writing a screenplay it's a question of what you leave out. I was more savage with that than Johnny was. He was saying, 'No, no, no, you can't leave that out, I love that part', so we had quite spirited discussions about it." I wonder which part Johnny didn't want left out? I wonder if it was the bearhug, or the rat swam? He wants to play it as an Australian. JD really likes a challenge eh? er.. Mr D, I've still got vacancies for phone voice coaching. ~SS~
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Post by The Poetic Protégée on Feb 10, 2005 10:44:25 GMT -5
Got the book on order Should arrive in a few weeks That's such a great article SS, it's great Roberts is writing the screen play! I just love how Johnny puts so much into everything he does, what a legend Are you sure phone coaching is going to be good enough SS? Shouldn't it be face to face just to make sure?
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Post by The Symbolic Sacrifice on Feb 13, 2005 19:17:08 GMT -5
Most definitely Lynx Hope you enjoy it. Heres a link to a site that has exerts from the book (which may help you decide whether you want to read it or not) and pictures of all types of things associated to GDR. Shantaram
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Post by Sugarbutt on Feb 22, 2005 2:04:08 GMT -5
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Post by The High Flyer on Apr 15, 2005 19:29:29 GMT -5
I had been slacking off badly in my Shantaram readnig from crazy schedules, but since I had some time to read while by my dad's side at the hospital, I'm up to Chapter Nineteen, leaving off when Karla wounded up in Lin's hutvillage to help out with the disease that had broke out all over. Still not close to even half of the book (ITS SO BIG!!!) But I'm getting somewhere ;D The more and mroe I read, the more I see Johnny in the role, I absolutely love it all, the words are so..I can't really explain..my favorite qutoe has got to be Khaderbai's translation of Farid's answer to Lin's topic at the first meeting Lin was at. The burden of happiness can only be relieved by the balm of sufferingJust perfect
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Post by The High Flyer on Apr 28, 2005 21:09:13 GMT -5
Just in... Good to know the screenplay is being worked on. Would anyone be able to stop by at Leopolds?
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Post by The Poetic Protégée on Jun 2, 2005 17:06:45 GMT -5
Wow! Shantaram is amazing. I'm over halfway through now and I feel like I'm being drawn in deeper with every page. He is such an incredible writer, there's such passion there, and such love, and such an overwhelming sense of what really happened, the reality of places and people. No wonder Johnny bought the rights to it!
There are so many fantastic quotes from it. I can't even begin to list them, maybe I will when I've finished...right now all I want to do is keep reading! ;D
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Post by The High Flyer on Dec 5, 2005 17:11:49 GMT -5
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Post by Sugarbutt on Dec 5, 2005 17:20:30 GMT -5
Yay!!! Finally!
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Post by The Symbolic Sacrifice on Dec 5, 2005 17:29:57 GMT -5
thanks HF I'm so wired about this film, is it too early to start getting excited about this? oops...too late ~SS~
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Post by The Poetic Protégée on Dec 5, 2005 17:32:22 GMT -5
No way is it too early, SS! Let me join you... Great news, HF. ;D
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