Johnny Depp is to star with lover Vanessa Paradis on the big screen.

The Hollywood heartthrob and his long-term partner are to appear in new movie 'My American Lover', the first time the couple will have worked together.

He said: "It's in preparation. It's called 'My American Lover'. Vanessa plays the French feminist Simone de Beauvoir and I play her lover Nelson Algren who is real macho."

Simone de Beauvoir was a 20th century French writer and philosopher famous for her treatise 'The Second Sex', an analysis of women's oppression and contemporary feminism, and her open relationship with existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. She travelled through Latin America with writer Algren in 1949.

Johnny - who has been in a relationship with French singer-and-actress Vanessa for around 12 years and has two children with her, Lily Rose, ten, and Jack, seven - is currently shooting 'The Tourist' with Angelina Jolie and admits he is "impressed" by her talents.

He said: "She's a nice woman. What she does she takes very seriously. I was really impressed by her and I'm thrilled to be working with her."

Just as Johnny is excited about working with Vanessa and Angelina he is also very excited about the next 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' film.

The 46-year-old actor - who reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the upcoming fourth movie, 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' - revealed to Blick.ch: "I love Captain Jack. In the earlier films there were so many subplots that the audience, and even I, was sometimes confused. The next part is fun, a lot of fun."