Johnny Depp refuses Whitey Bulger Biopic over salary dispute

MUMBAI: Johnny Depp has fallen out of Black Mass, Cross Creek and Exclusive Media‘s biopic of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger for director Barry Levinson, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
 
After Levinson sold the project softly at Cannes, the star was asked to cut his fee.
 
According to the sources, Depp was to be paid his usual quote of $20 million, but with sales of the project at Cannes on the soft side, producers were looking to trim the budget, in the high $60 million range. Deep and his reps at UTA refused when they were offered to take half. The situation came to a bottom line on Wednesday.
 
The movie was to have been Depp‘s follow-up to Transcendence, the sci-fi Alcon project he is currently shooting.

Though Cross Creek and Exclusive hope to salvage Black Mass by hiring another actor, it is unclear how Depp‘s exit will affect the involvement of Joel Edgerton, who recently became attached to play a disgraced FBI agent.
 
Depp will next be seen in The Lone Ranger, opening 3 July in North America.