Johnny Depp - Depp Promised Thompson He'd Shoot Rum Diary

The Hollywood star met cult author Thompson "many years ago" and claims he and the writer discovered a long-lost script at Thompson's home, which they agreed to work on as a film with director Bruce Robinson.

The script Depp and Thompson discovered was published as The Rum Diary in 1998, but the movie project fell through because Robinson had decided to take a break from Hollywood.

So Depp was delighted when the filmmaker revisited the proposal following Thompson's death in 2005, as he can finally fulfil his promise when the picture is released next year (11).

He tells Britain's Culture magazine, "Hunter and I, many, many years ago, unearthed this script in his basement. He thought it was pretty good, and we made this deal in the middle of the night that we'd make it into a film and produce it together.

"A year or two later, we'd had meetings with financiers etc. Our first choice to direct then was Bruce Robinson... (But) he didn't want anything to do with movies... Hunter made his exit, and I pursued Bruce like a bandit, a fiend, and we got him."

Depp famously played Thompson in the 1998 big screen version of his book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.