Johnny Depp getting a lifetime achievement honor at Rome Film Festival

September 20, 2024

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Mercury Studios

The organizers of the upcoming Rome Film Fest will honor Johnny Depp with a lifetime achievement award, Deadline is reporting.

The 19th edition of the festival will be held from Oct. 16 to Oct. 27 and will also screen Depp’s directorial effort Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which co-stars Al Pacino.

The film is a World War I-era project centering on the life of Italian artist Amedeo “Modi” Modigliani. Riccardo Scamarcio, who played the heavy in John Wick: Chapter 2, portrays the titular artist.

Pacino, for his part, plays art collector Maurice Gangnat in the film. The legendary actor, at least according to Depp, was the inspiration for him to get behind the camera.

When he wrapped principal photography back in January, Depp said on an Instagram Story, “To Al, who requested that I make this film — how could I refuse Pacino? A sincere acknowledgement for generously contributing his talent and dedication to this project.”

Johnny also called Modi “an incredibly fulfilling and transformative experience.”

Incidentally, actor/director Viggo Mortensen will also be given a lifetime achievement honor from the festival, and his recent film, The Dead Don’t Hurt, will also screen there.

The Rome Film Fest will host a “pre-opening” screening of Francis Ford Coppola‘s Megalopolis on Oct. 14, and the city itself will fete the Oscar-winning Italian American filmmaker later in the week.

Watch Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix’s jail cell makeout sesh in new ‘Joker: Folie à Deux clip’

Warner Bros. Pictures

So far, we’ve seen a lot of little bits of the movie Joker: Folie à Deux in the various trailers that have been released, but now’s your chance to see Lady Gaga actually act with — and smooch — Joaquin Phoenix, thanks to an exclusive clip from the film posted by Entertainment Weekly.

In the clip, Phoenix as Arthur Fleck aka Joker is in a jail cell, awaiting the conclusion of his trial. Gaga’s Harleen Quinzel aka Lee runs up and starts kissing him through the bars, as a guard yells, “Hey, no touching!”

“I’m so f****** proud of you. You should see it out there,” Lee says, referring to a crowd of supporters who’ve gathered outside, cheering for Fleck. “They’re all going crazy for you. You did it.”

“I dunno,” Fleck slurs. “Maybe I should read a law book or something. Even though I never went to law school.” He then pulls his tie up and holds it like a noose. Lee laughs and they kiss some more, as the guard warns them again. “You can do anything you want,” Lee says. “You’re Joker.”

Joker: Folie à Deux — which features Gaga and Phoenix performing several musical numbers, as well as a song that Gaga wrote especially for the film — is in theaters on Oct. 4.

Report: Actor cast to play Stevie Van Zandt in Bruce Springsteen movie

Taylor Hill/WireImage

The Bruce Springsteen movie Deliver Me From Nowhere has reportedly found its Little Steven.

Deadline reports that actor Johnny Cannizzaro, who starred in Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of the musical Jersey Boys, has been cast to play Springsteen’s longtime friend and E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt in the film, about the making of The Boss’ 1982 album Nebraska.

Crazy Heart writer/director Scott Cooper is directing the film, which will star The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen. The cast also includes Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser and Harrison Sloan Gilbertson.

The project is an adaptation of Warren Zane’s 2023 book, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.

Brian Jordan Alvarez on his new high school comedy ‘English Teacher’

Pari Dukovic/FX

For Brian Jordan Alvarez, creator and star of FX’s latest comedy series, English Teacher, it all goes back to high school. Specifically, it can all be traced back to a certain English teacher who changed his life.

“I went to a very English-forward high school called St. Andrew’s-Sewanee in Tennessee for three years of my high school experience,” Alvarez told ABC Audio at the Disney Upfront event in May. “I had [a teacher] named Claire Reishman in high school, and she really taught me to write in a really meaningful way. I always think back on that.”

In the new sitcom Alvarez plays Evan, a teacher at the center of many different competing energies.

“The parents, the students, the administration. Everybody wants something different,” Alvarez said. “Everybody has a different definition of what’s right.”

Alvarez said he owes “it all to my high school English teacher.”

“Now I’m out here playing a high school English teacher,” Alvarez said. “I always think when I’m writing, I go, ‘Maybe that’s where I learned how to write,’ because I didn’t formally study screenwriting or anything.”

While Alvarez couldn’t disclose if his viral character TJ Mack will make an appearance on English Teacher, he did tease it happening in the future. “We can only hope. Well, maybe the energy of TJ Mack will infuse English Teacher. Maybe we can get a TJ Mack cameo in season 2, season 3,” Alvarez said.

And he couldn’t let the interview go without sneaking in a Lady Gaga reference.

“There could be a hundred people in a room and all of them would be watching English Teacher,” Alvarez said.

English Teacher premieres Sept. 2, on FX. You can also stream it on Hulu and Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News and FX.