peter rawley Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I imagine that the posthumous completion of Destino sent many a studio into a creative flurry. "Salvador Dali! Why didn't we think of it before! Let's get a movie in the works!" Then, of course, the idea spread through a billion little tentacles and we ended up with what Christopher Campbell said last year was 9 projects. Some have petered off, some have stayed around, and one seems to have nabbed its superstar.

The New Zealand Herald says that Johnny Depp is holding auditions to find screenwriters for the Peter Rawley-produced Dali picture. (When CC wrote about it last year, Rawley was trying to woo Depp.) In what I would call the best casting move in eons, Depp will star as Dali, and is scavenging the earth for the right writer. A source told the publication that Depp is "open to working with anyone -- from housewives to pensioners -- if the script is right."

Meanwhile, it also looks like the Al Pacino and Peter O'Toole pics are still in the works. Now, I completely get Depp as Dali, and think that's as good as you can get for the epic artist. I would also bet that O'Toole could pull off something funky, but Pacino? It almost sounds like a joke. Nevertheless, this might just pull me out of my distaste for back-to-back biopics on the same person. Stay tuned!

[via Ace Showbiz]

When we first told you about a Salvador Dalí biopic in the works, the project was to be helmed by Simon West (Con Air). Ten months later, we got more news on the film, which had seemingly replaced West with Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). But now it seems we may have been discussing two different pictures. According to producer Peter Rawley (1975's Ransom), there was once nine projects in the works based on the surrealist's life. Now there are only four (known about), including Rawley's Dalí, which so far has a script by Philippe Mora (Howling III) and for which Rawley is trying to woo Johnny Depp to play the title role. According to the producer, Dalí will also be about the artist's whole life -- unlike the other films, which he claims are more about Dalí's wife and art-dealers -- and will be shot in Barcelona and Prague as soon as a cast is in place.