Johnny Depp Aims for Major Hollywood Comeback in Day Drinker, His Fourth Film with Penélope Cruz .Linh

Johnny Depp is reteaming with Penélope Cruz for a Hollywood comeback.

Day Drinker, an upcoming thriller from director Marc Webb, will mark Depp’s first major studio project since his controversial defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.

The movie follows “a cruise ship bartender” and “a mysterious day drinker” who “find themselves entangled in a criminal underbelly, and connected in unexpected ways,” per a statement from Lionsgate — the first major American distributor behind a movie starring Depp, 61, since Warner Bros.’ 2018 film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

The Oscar nominee’s high-profile defamation trial against Heard, 38, televised live in 2022, ended with the jury siding mostly with Depp. The Aquaman actress, who won one of her three defamation counterclaims, paid Depp $1 million in a settlement reached in December 2022.

Cruz, 50, counts Depp as a regular screen collaborator. The two have starred together in 2001’s Blow, 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express.

In 2020, the Oscar-winning actress submitted declarations in court on behalf of Depp, saying she had not witnessed the star engaging in violent behavior. “Many years have passed and I have not only made 3 movies with him, but I also count on him as a great friend,” wrote Cruz in the documents. “I’ve always been impressed by his kindness, his brilliant mind, his talent, and his peculiar sense of humor.”

In September, the Spanish actress shared a selfie of herself posing with Depp at the San Sebastian Film Festival. There, Depp premiered a movie as a director, Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, starring Al Pacino.

During a San Sebastian Film Festival press conference held Sept. 24, Depp alluded to his defamation trial in explaining how he personally related to his film’s subject, Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

“Each has their story. Sure, we can say that I’ve been through a number of things here and there,” he said with a laugh, in a video from the conference shared on Instagram by The Hollywood Reporter. “I think we’ve all been through a number of things, ultimately. Maybe yours wasn’t, didn’t turn into a soap opera, televised, in fact.”

The Pirates of the Caribbean star recently starred in the French movie Jeanne Du Barry, from director-star Maïwenn. The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 before being released in the U.S. in May. Also among Depp’s upcoming projects is the animated movie Johnny Puff: Secret Mission.

Heard now lives a quiet life in Madrid, Spain, with her 3-year-old daughter Oonagh Paige.