Penélope Cruz To Star Opposite Johnny Depp In Lionsgate’s ‘Day Drinker’
Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz are set to reunite on the big screen in Lionsgate’s Day Drinker from director Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man), the studio announced this afternoon.
The project will be the pair’s fourth together, on the heels of Blow, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Murder on the Orient Express. First reported in March — but with Sydney Sweeney said to be starring opposite Depp — the project will mark Depp’s first big studio outing since the resolution of his defamation case against Amber Heard in 2022.
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Based on an original spec screenplay by Zach Dean, Day Drinker watches as a cruise ship bartender meets a mysterious day drinker — only for both of them to find themselves entangled in a criminal underbelly, and connected in unexpected ways. The film also marks the second recent collaboration between Lionsgate and 30West, who are also teaming for John Carney’s Power Ballad, starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas.
Producers include Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (John Wick franchise), Adam Kolbrenner, and Dean, as well as Depp’s IN.2. 30West will exec produce the project, with Lionsgate launching international sales at AFM. Chelsea Kujawa is overseeing the project for Lionsgate, for whom Dan Freedman negotiated deals.
In a statement on the project, Adam Fogelson, chair, 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.”
One of Hollywood’s most bankable and in-demand stars before his prior legal troubles mounted, Depp’s last studio release was Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018. That Warner Bros franchise parted ways with Depp and recast Mads Mikkelsen in his role as dark wizard Grindelwald in third installment Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore after he lost a 2020 UK libel trial involving abuse allegations made by ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp later went on to win a defamation trial against Heard in the U.S., and in recent years, he’s been seen in the Cannes-premiering Jeanne du Barry, along with indie titles Minamata, Waiting for the Barbarians, and City of Lies.
Most recently seen starring opposite Adam Driver in Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Cruz will next be seen in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Frankenstein pic The Bride! for Warner Bros.
Webb is coming off of Disney’s live-action Snow White, which hits theaters on March 21, 2025.
News of Cruz’s Day Drinker casting was first reported by THR.
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