Johnny Depp rode high on his horse “Pirates of the Caribbean”One success after another “nearly perfect”The project started to wither on its vine.
It was 2007 and 12,000 Hollywood TV and film writers were on strike.
Depp was also attached to star in “The Big Movie” among other movies that he had in his pipeline. “Shantaram,”This story is about a former heroin addict from bank robbery who escapes an Australian jail and lands in India. There, he struggles to make a new life for himself in the chaotic 1980s Bombay.
Warner Bros. purchased the rights to the international bestseller of the same name in 2004. This was one year after the book had been published. Gregory David Roberts was the author of the screenplay.
Jack Sparrow, however, said: “If you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it.”
Roberts was the first domino that fell in nearly 20 years of development and production. “Shantaram,”Paramount TV and Apple create an epic story. “Sons of Anarchy”Charlie Hunnam, the star of Charlie Hunnam, would eventually end but in a reformulated TV series.
Eli Roth, a rising writer-director, replaced Roberts. He delivered a rewrite which was anchored “Shantaram” for a decade. Peter Weir “Dead Poets Society”And “The Truman Show”Fame was even signed in 2005 before creative differences ended his involvement.
Depp was still confident in the project two years later when Mira Nair, Indian American director, was hired. But there were cracks.
‘We’ve Just Hit Pause for the Moment’
“Because of what’s going on with the writers strike and everything, we’ve put the movie on, basically on pause,” Depp spoke in 2007 interview with India’s NDTV as he promoted the Tim Burton-directed “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,”Six months after publication “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” the Disney franchise’s third installment.
“We’ve just hit pause for the moment to see how everything goes with the writers strike,”Depp stated. “Mira’s work with Eric Roth has been amazing. And I think they’re getting close to something very very, nearly perfect. But with the writers strike, you need to be, make sure everything is — you’ve got all your ducks in a row.”
Depp was asked if the film would shoot on location in Bombay. “there would be no place to replicate that.”
“It would have to be in that area, in Bombay, and I think there’s nobody better than Mira to capture that,”Depp stated. “She has a real strong feel for the place, obviously.”
Nair, who called it a “piece of my heart,”Then, it was taken off “Shantaram,”Later, I heard that the script was fantastic and was “in a way ready to go”However, the project was canceled after Depp took up other work during the strike of Hollywood writers. Depp “Public Enemies” (2009), “Alice in Wonderland” (2010), “The Tourist”(2010) The fourth “Pirates”Film (2011) and his second Hunter S. Thompson passion movie. “The Rum Diary” (2011), awaited.
But “Shantaram” wasn’t dead. Warner Bros. held the rights to the $2 million price, so Joel Edgerton was recruited to play the leading role of Dale Conti, also known as Lin Ford. Depp returned to produce. Edgerton was able to enter negotiations for the film. However, it still required a director.
Enter Charlie Hunnam from Paramount Television and Apple
Reading, like millions of other people, is an enjoyable pastime. “Shantaram”Charlie Hunnam, a British actor, was influenced by his story. He was on vacation in Thailand when he met Charlie Hunnam. “devoured”He read all 936 pages and, amid uncertainty, decided it was better suited to be a TV show.
As luck would have it and as Hunnam said, “after many, many noble attempts, Warner Brothers threw in the hat and the rights became available.”In 2018, bids were invited. After a long process of over a month, Paramount Content and Anonymous Content were successful in acquiring the assets. “Shantaram”Apple is expected to join the project soon.
It was intended to be made into a television series.
“I think because of the length and complexity of the story, it’s really impossible to distill it down to two hours,”Hunnam Interview with EW.
Hunnam was ready for a chance to build on his success with FX’s hit series. “Sons of Anarchy,”This ended after seven seasons in 2014. Since then, he had starred in “The Lost City of Z,” “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”And “The Gentlemen,”There were other films, but none of them had the same amount of bravado or signature for Hunnam that Jax Teller.
“Ultimately stories want to get told, and they can get told at different times with different people,”Hunnam shared his thoughts with EW. “I didn’t feel necessarily as though this is my role and I’m the only one who can play it, by any means. It’s an amazing role and an amazing story, and there were a lot of people that would have done a splendid job, but I felt very grateful and fortunate that I got to bring it to life.”
Hunnam was appointed to the role of chief executive. “Shantaram”September 2019
The challenges that remained were however persistent “Shantaram”Throughout the development process, it continued. Six months later — and a month before much of the world went into COVID-19 lockdown — production halted to give showrunner, writer and creator Eric Warren Singer (“American Hustle”) more time to write scripts. Steven Lightfoot (“The Punisher”To help with the production TV experience, a) was also brought in.
Singer was gone by November, and Lightfoot had arrived. In mid-2001, India was hit by an epidemic of COVID deaths and the original shooting locations were rearranged.
With some shoots to remain in Australia, Hunnam now would be returning to Thailand — ground zero of his “Shantaram” inspiration.
Important reception “Shantaram”
Television critics have a mixed opinion about “Shantaram,”With Rotten Tomatoes giving itA 55% score based on 20 reviews as at Tuesday.
These are some of them:
- The Hollywood Reporter called it “The Hollywood Reporter”.A show with “the insufferable trappings of yet another white savior story about a damaged guy whose quest for self-actualization leads him to an exotic place where superficial lessons about a previously unknown spiritual system help him and basically nobody else around him.”
- RogerEbert.com claims it was “quintessential Apple TV+ fare”But “a lot to get through, and more than a little bloated as a result.”It is positive that the series ended on a high note. “captures the spirit of its source material, albeit in a slightly stretched-out package.”
- The Guardian dissected the Guardian’s statement as “a bit of a thriller, with a smattering of morality lessons, though its main moral is that if there’s any chance for star Charlie Hunnam to have a conversation after having taken off his top, or being in the process of taking it off, then yes, he will do it.”
- The San Fransisco Chronicle explains “there’s nothing stiff or stuffy about ‘Shantaram,’ but the quality is high enough to qualify as prestige television, a term that gets harder to define by the day.”
- The lack of variety was also a problem. “Too often on ‘Shantaram,’ Bombay is, first, the site of Lin’s romantic pursuits or personal growth. And it’s a city with far too many stories for that to be the one that consumes all the oxygen.”
Three “Shantaram”Episodes are now available for streaming, and Apple TV+ will roll out nine more episodes on Fridays through December.
