The Rum Diary (trailer)

Is it me, or does this look remarkably bland? Even with Johnny Depp? Maybe it’s just that its story cannot be boiled down into a snappy trailer? One hopes, anyway...

If you weren’t aware that Johnny Depp had a new movie coming out, you might want to blame -- or thank, as the case may transpire -- Disney. Listen to this charming tale from Mediaite:

Disney Bans ABC Affiliates From Talking To Johnny Depp About His New Movie

Did you know that Johnny Depp has a new movie out now in which he plays another wacky, rum-swilling drunk? Well, if the Walt Disney Company has its way, you’ll never ever know. That’s why they’re using the magic of corporate synergy to ban all of their Disney-owned ABC affiliates from talking to Depp about his new movie, The Rum Diary.

Yes, apparently someone at Disney is terrified, just terrified, that the public may somehow confuse a 1950s-set, hard R-rated, Hunter S. Thompson adaptation about a naive journalist going up against a slick real estate developer in Puerto Rico with one of their Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Clearly an easy mistake to make. So a clause in Depp’s Pirates contract disallowed their affiliates from talking to the actor or even videotaping him at the movie’s Austin Film Festival premiere.

Maybe Disney needs a nice refreshing rum drink and a day on the beach.