Johnny Depp

The full cast list for Gore Verbinski’s Rango is out, with the addition of Isla Fischer. She joins Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone, Harry Dean Stantn and Ned Beatty, Abigail Breslin - and of course, Johnny Depp as the voice of Rango. Rango is still in pre-production, with a release date of 2011 and they haven’t yet released a date where they will start filming. Isla will play a lizard ho encounters Depp’s character during his travels to discover his true self.

Rango will also use the newest of the new in animation tehniques, filming the actors as they are performing the roles, so that the animators can match facial movements and features with the virtual characters. Sounds like a lot of fun, and I’m sure the kids will love it - which gives us adults reason to watch and listen, too, hm?

On Monday, Johnny picked up the National Movie Award in London for Best Male Performance for Sweeny Todd, though he couldn’t be there to accept it in person. The Sun reported that there were boos, because he was one of many celebrities that didn’t show up for the awards. “Johnny Depp was booed by the audience as he accepted his Best Male Performance gong with a video clip.”

Thanks to Trish over at Depp Impact, she dug up the video itself, and I’m pretty sure I only heard one little boo -and I listened to it three times…

…ok, I wanted to watch Johnny talking three times, and happened to catch the one weirdo. Maybe he wasn’t as upset about Johnny’s not being there as much as he wanted someone else to win? Don’t know, but one sour apple won’t spoil the delight it is to drool over watch Johnny’s video acceptance of his award.

In other news, Variety reports that Depp has accepted a new roll, teaming up with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski on “Rango” an animated picture for Paramound due out in March 2011.

Johnny will be the voice of the lead character, a household pet that goes on an adventure to discover his true self. The script is by John Logan (the Aviator) built from an idea by Verbinski. They’ll work with Industrial Lights & Magic on the animation.

They hope to sue cutting edge animation techniques that will allow them to “capture and translate every aspect of Johnny’s performance, using it to drive the computer-generated character in a way that has yet to be seen in an animated feature.”

Johnny will begin working on Rango in January.