The Rum Diary is a forthcoming film based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel The Rum Diary currently in pre-production and tentatively set for release in 2009. According to a Variety article , the production company Dark And Stormy Entertainment, comprised of writers and producers Jason Smilovic, Tyler Mitchell, and Robert Kravis, will produce the film.
According to the production company, actor Johnny Depp will play Paul Kemp, while Bruce Robinson wrote the adaptation and is also set to direct.
Begun in 1959 by a then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary details the life and events of Paul Kemp, a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction. Thompson delivers a potent story that pushes the sometimes brutal truth of human relations into your face in such a way that it would be absurd to not laugh. Written by Joshua Lake
