Ritesh Sharma
The City of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree will be Johnny Depp’s new home for a while! The principal photography of Marc Webb’s ‘Day Drinker’ will start in Madrid, Spain, in the first quarter of 2025. Depp will star alongside Penélope Cruz and Madelyn Cline. Zach Dean wrote the screenplay. Distributed by Lionsgate, the project marks the A-lister’s first major studio project since the resolution of his defamation trial against Amber Heard.
The plot revolves around a cruise ship bartender who crosses paths with a mysterious day drinker. What begins as a chance encounter soon pulls them into the depths of the criminal underworld, revealing unexpected connections between them.
Speaking about the film, Adam Fogelson, Chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said, “Day Drinker combines a highly commercial concept with wildly outrageous twists and turns all set in an incredible world, and there is no better filmmaker than Marc or two more perfectly cast actors than Johnny and Penélope to bring that world to life.” Before Cruz, Sydney Sweeney was reportedly on board for the movie when it was first announced in March 2024.
Being one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars at the box office, Depp’s last major studio film was ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,’ in which he played Gellert Grindelwald. His recent credits include ‘Johnny Puff: Secret Mission,’ in which he voiced the titular character, Johnny Puff. The actor also appeared as King Louis XV in ‘Jeanne du Barry,’ W. Eugene Smith in ‘Minamata,’ and Colonel Joll in ‘Waiting for the Barbarians.’ Last year, he also returned to feature filmmaking after a long hiatus of nearly three decades with ‘Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness.’
Cruz is reuniting with Depp for the fourth time in ‘Day Drinker.’ The duo previously shared the screen in Ted Demme’s ‘Blow,’ Rob Marshall’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,’ and Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express.’ The Spanish actress portrayed Laura Ferrari in Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari.’ Before that, she took on roles such as Graciela Rivera in ‘The 355,’ Clara in ‘L’immensità,’ and Azucena in ‘On the Fringe.’ Notably, her performance as Janis Martínez Moreno in Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Parallel Mothers’ garnered significant acclaim, earning her an Academy Award nomination. Looking ahead, besides ‘Day Drinker,’ Cruz is set to appear as Myrna in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride’ and Olga in
Isabel Coixet’s ‘Days of Abandonment.’ Both projects are currently in development.
Madrid has solidified its reputation as a premier European production hub, attracting numerous film and television projects in recent years. Last year alone, the city reportedly hosted the production of 41 feature films and 48 television series, including Renny Harlin’s action movie ‘The Beast,’ starring Samuel L. Jackson, and the third season of AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.’
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