From the Daily Echo:

HOLLYWOOD hero Johnny Depp could be about to shoot a new movie in Bournemouth.

Depp, 41, whose recent roles include Peter Pan playwright JM Barrie in Finding Neverland and lovable rogue Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, will be back on screen in July as Willy Wonka in the summer blockbuster film version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But the two times Oscar nominee is seriously considering a script about a former drug addict who went from living among the high rollers of swinging London in the 1960s to sleeping rough on the streets of Boscombe before cleaning his life up some 20 years ago.

Producers of the film - to be called Addict - are close to signing Depp, having already secured the services of Andy Serkis, the voice of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as director.

Addict is based on the best-selling autobiography of Stephen Smith, who spent 10 months in 1978-79 living rough on the streets and beach at Boscombe.

The book, which has sold some 1.2 million copies, tells the story of Stephen's 20-year amphetamine addiction from being given his first tablet by the psychiatric doctor who sexually abused him at the age of 14, to his eventual triumph over adversity.

In his topsy-turvy world he became a getaway driver for shady London crimelords and lived the high life, but as the Swinging Sixties lost momentum he ended up penniless and living rough.

A chance meeting with a German student in a Chelsea pub not long after he left Bournemouth set Stephen on the road to recovery. He married her and today divides his time between homes in London and Germany, where he is a successful property developer.

"The story is part comedy, part drugs drama, part love story and it comes out with a positive ending," says Stephen.

"The Hollywood people are talking about Johnny Depp and we're just waiting for him to come back and confirm. We think we'll get him because it's such an attractive story.

"He gets to be a playboy gangster, a down and out, a reformed character - all in the same film. It's a potential Oscar winner.



What d'ya think? Let's go as extras!