Johnny Depp was in London for the UK premiere of 'The Rum Diary' and said he was "feeling good" despite a long promotional schedule which is only just reaching its conclusion as the film opens in the country on November 11th 2011. The film sees Depp portray his good friend, the late Hunter S Thompson - albeit his alter-go Paul Kemp - as an American journalist who heads to the Caribbean to work for a local paper; once there he becomes enshrouded in a life of booze and debauchery. It's the second time the 48 year-old's portrayed Thompson following 1998's 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'.
"I believe that Hunter would be very proud, yeah. He would probably try to hurt us a little bit with a sarcastic remark or whatever, but he would have been proud," Depp told The Associated Press, going on to add, "He is someone I cared about, and still care about, and the main thing I wanted was to make him proud." The move is an adaptation of Thompson's 1998-released novel, though it was written back in the 60s and the Arizona Republic reported recently that it might not even have reached that stage had Depp not been rooting around the writer's home.
"We were in the war room (at Thompson's house) looking through boxes for the manuscript of 'Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas'" said Depp to the paper, "Suddenly I happened upon this other box that I broke open and, right on top there, stuffed amongst these papers, was 'The Rum Diary'. And we started reading it, the two of us, cross-legged on the floor. And I said, 'Hunter, you're insane, man, this is great writing. You need to publish this. I don't care when you wrote it. Let's publish it.'"