Johnny Depp in talks to play opposite Angelina Jolie in spy thriller The Tourist

Johnny Depp is now in negotiations to star with Angelina Jolie in Sony Pictures’ espionage thriller The Tourist, according to Variety, which Graham King’s GK Films is financing and distributing in association with the studio.
Tim Headington, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Jonathan Glickman are also attached to produce.

Depp would play the role of an American tourist who’s drawn into a web of intrigue and danger by a female Interpol agent (Jolie) attempting to locate her former-turned-criminal. The new developments come after Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation, Avatar) and The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck exited the production over creative differences.

According to the report, Alfonso Cuaron is among the a-list helmers circling the director’s chair. The script for The Tourist has received several rewrites, including revisions by William Wheeler (The Hoax) and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Traitor), Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun, Valkyrie), Jérôme Salle (Largo Winch) and Julian Fellowes.

Spyglass initially purchased the rights to The Tourist, which is a remake of the 2005 French thriller Anthony Zimmer with Bharat Nalluri (Killing Time, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) directing Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron, but Cruise bolted, taking the lead in James Mangold’s action comedy Knight & Day at Fox. Then Von Donnersmarck came aboard with Angelina Jolie.

If Depp seals the deal, it would leave in limbo his Disney projects Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and/or The Lone Ranger, either of which was to be his next project.