Action thriller 'Day Drinker' to star Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz for Lionsgate

Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz will star in the upcoming action thriller “Day Drinker.” The project reunites the two actors, who shared the screen in “Blow,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Murder on the Orient Express.”

“Day Drinker” follows a cruise ship bartender who meets a mysterious day drinker – only for both of them to find themselves trapped in a criminal underbelly and connected in unexpected ways. Marc Webb (“The Amazing Spider-Man,” Disney's upcoming “Snow White”) is directing for Lionsgate. The studio is launching international sales at AFM.

“'Day Drinker' combines a very commercial concept with a wildly outrageous twist and sets it all in an incredible world, and there's no better filmmaker to bring that world to life than Mark, or two more perfect actors than Johnny and Penelope,” Adam Fogelson, Lionsgate's motion picture group chairman said in a statement.

The film will be produced by Thunder Road's Basil Iwanic and Erica Lee, who backed the “John Wick” franchise for Lionsgate. Additional producers include Adam Kolbrenner, whose credits include “The Tomorrow War” and “Free Guy,” and Jack Dean, who wrote the original spec screenplay and previously wrote “Fast X” and “The Tomorrow War.” The film is executive produced by 30 West. Chelsea Kuzawa oversees the project at Lionsgate. Dan Friedman negotiated the deal for the studio.

“Day Drinker” marks Depp's return to Hollywood following his high-profile legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard. After losing a 2020 UK defamation lawsuit linked to Hurd's abuse allegations, he was forced out of the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise. Depp won a subsequent defamation trial in the United States in 2022.

Depp recently landed his first lead roles in 2023's “Jean du Barry” and “Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” which premiered at this year's San Sebastian International Film Festival. To promote “Jean du Barry” at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Depp expressed mixed feelings about his years-long absence from Hollywood films.

“Did I feel boycotted by Hollywood? You don't have to have a pulse to feel like, 'No. Nothing is happening. It's a weird joke,'' he said during a press conference. “When you're asked to resign from a movie you're doing because of something that's merely a function of vowels and consonants floating in the air, yes, you feel boycotted.”

He then continued, “I don't feel boycotted by Hollywood, because I don't think about Hollywood.”

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Depp and Cruise's casting.