Johny Depp to star in Shantaram

NDTV: "Australian filmmaker Peter Weir will direct Hollywood heartthrob Johny Depp in the movie version of Gregory David Roberts' novel Shantaram.

The novel revolves around a heroin addict who flees to India and dons the garb of a doctor.

In what was dubbed as the biggest film rights deal, Warner Bros studios and several partners acquired the rights to the novel for $2 million last year.

They immediately signed up Depp to lead the cast. Production of the film is due to begin late next year, reports Variety.com. Shantaram will be produced by Depp's Infinitum Nihil production company, along with Brad Pitt through his Plan B company and Initial Entertainment Group's Graham King.

Roberts' novel is a dramatic tale set in the 1980s of an Australian heroin addict who escapes a high-security prison and lands up in India as a doctor.

He then gets involved in counterfeiting, smuggling and gunrunning, which takes him to Afghanistan, where he becomes a forger and a gun-runner and winds up battling the Russians.

The 1,000-page book published in 2003 was the first that Roberts has written and is based on his own experiences.

Weir has directed films such as war drama Gallipoli (1981), The Truman Show (1998) and Dead Poets Society (1989), last directed Russell Crowe in 2002's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. (PTI)"