One of the most recent troubled productions in Hollywood, it looks like Black Mass is finally going into production this summer.
Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger) had long been rumoured to be involved in the film, with Barry Levinson (Rain Man) set to direct and Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby) set to co-star. But after years of production issues, which saw both Levinson and Edgerton leave the project, it looks like finally the film will roll under the direction of Scott Cooper, acclaimed director of Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace, which is in cinemas now.
Depp is confirmed for the film to star as Whitey Bulger, one the FBI’s most-wanted men and leader of The Winter Hill Gang, who was involved in racketeering and murder. In a strange turn of events, Bulger was also an FBI informant. But after being told by his childhood friend turned FBI agent John Connelly, Bulger went on the run. Edgerton was earmarked for the Connelly role, but now it seems Bane himself, Tom Hardy, is in talks to take over the role. If you ask us, this could me a match made in heaven.
Based on the book Black Mass: The True Story of a Unholy Alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill, the films script is written by Mark Mallouk, and is set to go before Cooper’s cameras this May.
Originally published February 8, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
