Report: Ten Million Dollar Paycheck Not Enough to Keep Johnny Depp on ‘Black Mass’

By  · Published on May 30th, 2013

While we’re not usually inclined to speculate on the financial desires of Hollywood’s brightest stars, it seems as if today’s report that Johnny Depp has dropped out of Barry Levinson’s Whitey Bulger biopic, Black Mass, due to financial disagreements leaves us little choice.

Deadline had reported that this was a possibility last night, writing then that “the troubles are in making his [Depp’s] deal and things aren’t looking great at the moment.” THR now weighs in with the firm news that Depp has exited the biopic, citing budget issues ‐ namely, that the film’s trimmed budget wasn’t going to accommodate Depp’s “usual” $20M fee and that Depp wasn’t going to accommodate a price drop that would have put his paycheck closer to $10M.

With Depp attached to the film since February, it raises the question ‐ why now? THR also reports that the film’s sale at Cannes was “on the soft side,” leading to a necessary budget trim that would put the total cost of the film in the $60M range. A “producer source” does, however, dispute the soft angle, “saying the sales were on target and that most territories were sold.” No matter what happened, the film is now out one major (and majorly bankable) star in Depp.

In light of this news, Joel Edgerton’s involvement in the project about the notorious gangster (Edgerton was set to play an FBI pal who eventually turned on Bulger earlier this month) has not been reestablished, but we’d hate to see the Aussie actor get embroiled in yet another disastrous casting debacle.