Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: While Johnny Depp waits to see if director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer can figure out a way to salvage The Lone Ranger after Disney halted the film because of a huge budget, Depp is making forward progress on dusting off another period property. David Koepp has been set to write the script for the remake of the 76-year-old film The Thin Man, the remake that Depp set up last year at Warner Bros as a vehicle to re-team with his Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director Rob Marshall. Depp will produce with his Infinitum Nihil partner Christi Dembrowski, Langley Park’s Kevin McCormick, Marshall and John DeLuca. There was talk that Jerry Stahl was going to write, but apparently nothing was written and Koepp is going to start from scratch. Which means he’ll go back to the Dashiell Hammett novel that spawned the series of six MGM films that starred William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Depp will play Nick, the former detective who marries an adorable young socialite, drinks a lot and occasionally solves a case. There is no word yet on who’ll join Depp and play Nora. The original intention is to take elements of the first two films and work them into one film, putting it into a period setting and giving it a Sherlock Holmes-like stylized treatment. Marshall also intends to use his talent as a choreographer (remember he did Chicago) and work in a musical number or two. Koepp directed Depp in the 2004 thriller Secret Window, which Koepp adapted from a Stephen King novel. Koepp recently came aboard to rewrite the Jack Ryan film at Paramount that still has Jack Bender attached to direct and Chris Pine aboard to play the CIA analyst in his formative years as Paramount tries to reboot that Tom Clancy-created franchise. Adam Cozad had written the earlier draft. Koepp has time to write after completing Premium Rush, the film he co-wrote and directed, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon starring. Koepp’s repped by CAA and attorney David Fox.