Producers of Johnny Depp’s ‘Modi’ Explain Why He Was the Perfect Director for the Surprisingly Lighthearted ‘Anti-Biopic’
Johnny Depp’s “Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness” world premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival this week, decades after Al Pacino, who brought the project to Depp, first saw a play that inspired the cinematic adaptation.
An official synopsis for “Modi” reads: “A seventy-two-hour whirlwind in the life of bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani, known as Modi to his friends, follows a chaotic series of events through the streets of war-torn Paris in 1916. On the run from the police, his desire to end his career and leave the city is dismissed by fellow artists Maurice Utrillo, Chaim Soutine and Modi’s muse, Beatrice Hastings. Modi seeks advice from his art dealer and friend, Leopold Zborowski — however, after a night of hallucinations, the chaos in Modi’s mind reaches a crescendo when faced with an American collector, Maurice Gangnat, who has the power to change his life.”
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Pacino had been hoping to make a film about Modigliani for years and eventually took the play’s script to longtime collaborator Barry Navidi to see what he thought. Impressed, Navidi recruited writers Jerzy and Mary Kromolowski to adapt the heart of the play into a screenplay. He first spoke to Johnny Depp about “Modi” when they worked together on Mike Newell’s “Donnie Brasco” in 1997, and now, more than a quarter-century later, they have finished the project and are ready to share it with audiences in San Sebastian.
Asked about any affinity he felt towards the film’s main character, Depp told Variety, “Modigliani was, of course, one of the great contemporary artists of all time. But he also represented an era and point of view where new possibilities still existed. His vision fascinates me. He doggedly walked to the beat of his own drum, and possessed a natural allergy for convention during a time where the norm was being openly challenged across every medium. It would be foolish not to admit that everything Modigliani ever stood for, and continues to stand for, resonates deeply within me.
“I feel immensely fortunate to be given the opportunity to, along with a sublime cast and crew, capture his world in three days,” he finished.
“Modi’s” cast of historical figures is led by actors Riccardo Scamarcio, Stephen Graham, Al Pacino, Antonia Desplat, Bruno Gouery and Luisa Ranieri. It’s produced by Depp and Navidi through Modi Productions Limited and Depp’s U.K. label IN.2.
Ahead of the film’s Tuesday evening world premiere, Navidi and IN.2 CEO Stephen Deuters and head of production Stephen Malit spoke with Variety about the long-gestated film, why Depp was the right man to direct it, and the extensive casting process to fill out a roster of historical figures.
This project has been around in one form or another for decades. It’s one that Al Pacino wanted to make years ago. What made Johnny the right director to finally bring this story to the screen?
Navidi: I think John is a very sensitive artist. He’s a painter, a musician, an actor, and an active director, which I got to witness up and close. I was quite impressed and just loved the way he worked all the time on set. We were, of course, thinking of several other directors before Johnny, as the project has been around for so long, but Al recognized that he was the right director because he has the sensibility and sensitivity of an artist. In the end, Johnny totally owned it. He said from the beginning, “I’m gonna find my vision when I start directing this.” And that’s exactly what it was with the writers and then the actors who were constantly working and reworking the dialogue and rewriting. I’ve been around a while, and I worked with John Houston as a kid growing up. I saw John in Johnny because of the way he directed. They both let everybody do their work and let every craftsman do their part and improvise.
How did the approach happen? And was IN2 involved as soon as Johnny agreed to direct?
Deuters: When it landed on our desk, we read it, and things came together very quickly. Johnny was quite surprised, humbled and a bit blown away that Al was asking him to direct this. He wasn’t expecting anyone to ask him to direct a film at that particular moment. We had a lot going on at the time, this was even before COVID, and we just thought it would be a really positive thing for us to do, a slightly unexpected change of direction and something that he could really throw himself into. As Barry said, Johnny loves working with fellow creatives and letting everyone do their thing. But in the end the whole process was very quick. We said yes and got straight on it, and it seemed we put it together within 18 months or so and found ourselves in Hungary. I think Johnny really didn’t believe it was even happening until he landed.
This story is based on a real figure from art history, but one who didn’t get famous until after his death, meaning biographical information is somewhat scarce. How much freedom did you have writing and shooting this story? And how much freedom did the actors have in playing these real people?
Deuters: An awful lot of freedom. It was all about keeping the spirit, maintaining the spirit. Obviously, we didn’t want to go completely off-piece. Everyone did their research. Antonia Desplat, for example, did an astonishing amount of research. She was the teacher’s pet there. Ricardo, he liked to fly by the seat of his pants a little bit more. Ryan and Bruno certainly did their work. So, everyone did their homework before the shoot, but when they got on set, they started to find the characters, listen to Johnny and move around more. Behind the camera, Johnny did his research, too, but he also took a lot of creative freedom. We refer to the film as an anti-biopic. We’re leaning away from calling it a biopic. It’s really just three crazy days in this life.
Talking about the actors, was there ever any discussion about Johnny appearing in the film? And how did you put together the rest of the very international cast?
Navidi: I’ll let Stephen answer that, but ironically, about 12 years ago, Al and I were talking about this project, and we wanted Johnny to play Modi. But at the time, Johnny was so, so busy. He was a superstar working in back-to-back Hollywood films, so there was no way he could do this one.
Reuters: Yeah, for this production, Johnny wasn’t going to be right for any of the main roles. But we had a great casting director, and she put a picture of Ricardo in front of Johnny one day, and he just said, “That one.” He didn’t know Ricardo. He hadn’t met him and didn’t really know much of his work, but he had Oliver Reed eyes. And that really stuck with Johnny. Johnny’s a very sort of instinctual person when it comes to these things. He’s like, “First thought, best thought.” A lot of the time, he goes with his gut. I think Bruno was the last one to be cast. That was the trickiest and took the longest to get right. And Antonia, I mean, she just blew everyone away. Ryan’s did an amazing job as Chaim. Stephen Graham’s an old friend, and we’ve done about four or five films with him. He was on board early doors. I don’t think he even knew the film’s name or what he was doing. He just said, “Okay.”
San Sebastian has become an important festival for Johnny on IN2. You announced the launch of the company with us at the festival several years ago. Your film “Crock of Gold,” a documentary about Shane MacGowan, was extremely well received here, and Johnny has won the Donostia career achievement award. What does it mean to be back now, premiering this film, which is so different from his other recent work?
Malit: San Sebastian’s been very good to us over the years. The festival has also increased the quality of films it screens and is one of the real quality festivals in the world. The Shane MacGowan documentary was the first project we brought here, and that was during COVID. I remember getting a little two-seater, one-propeller plane from England with the director Julian Temple, and we were scared the plane was gonna run out of fuel over the Bay of Biscay. But we had a great experience with Johnny and the team. Then we won the jury award and had to fly back and collect it at the end of the festival, which was great. But San Sebastian is wonderful because it works well with what IN.2 was set up to do, which is make films exactly like “Modi,” films with a European sensibility and American accessibility. Having Johnny and Al Pacino involved in the movie was really the catalyst for me to set it up and getting to work with Barry.
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