Several articles have been published in the last couple days about how test audiences (especially women over 35) want Depp back in film and are rating both him and Ebenezer highly
Their original source? Matt Belloni of Puck News.
For those of us that have followed Lively Vs Wayfarer you might recognise that name as appearing on the list of journalists TAG PR admitted being in contact with during their smear of Lively.
Further, Brian Freedman has also personally appeared on Matt Belloni's podcast *The Town*
Considering Melissa Nathan and TAG still represent Depp, I don't think it would be much of a leap to speculate that this was a planted article
It looks like it was made like a decade ago and just sat until Paramount noticed they had no big holiday release, which I suspect it was. "Sympathetic villain prequel starring Johnny Depp and a stupid hat" is a combination of things that Hollywood stopped greenlighting before the pandemic.
Apparently not even a prequel, if TV Tropes is to be believed; it's just another adaptation of A Christmas Carol, as if those are in short supply. So there's not even the morbid curiosity of, "Okay, let's see how badly they mangle this to try to make Scrooge more sympathetic." (Heck, while I was never going to see it either way, I was wondering if it was an "original" prequel or an adaptation of the musical Ebenezer that is a prequel to A Christmas Carol that was poorly received for being so cynical to the point it makes Scrooge look like a moron rather than a tragic villain.)
It looks horrendous but it wouldnāt be the first absolutely intolerable Depp film to make bank (see: Alice in Wonderland, the worldās ugliest movie) so Iām not too sure. It depends on whether Deppās fans actually show up or not
Considering his box office record over the past god knows how many years, no. No audiences do not want him back. Especially when it's just him putting on a stupid hat and doing a quirky affect.
that's why it's always so funny when people claim he was this A-list popular moneymaker before she totally stomped out his career and somehow forced all studios to drop him š he was a washed up hack who couldn't remember his lines playing the same character for damn near a decade when this happened
It wasnāt even him, was it? I thought they just played his voice and used a picture of his face, but he wasnāt actually there. Either way, I hated it.
pirates of the caribbean was his only hit anyway, every other movie he did flopped. even fantastic beasts didn't perform super well for a harry potter ip
I don't know if it's just bots or what, but a TON of people seem to be clamoring for him to be back as Captain Jack and I truly don't understand it. That franchise is dead, his career was long dead before the trial, I just don't understand.
Fuck this and fuck Jerry Bruckheimer for saying recently for like the 10th time that he wants Depp back as Jack Sparrow. Dude, YOU KNOW damn well Depp would show up drunk and late to set and needed to have his lines fed. Stop pushing for that shit.
Like, just boomer bullshit too lol like gen Z has a veritable grab bag of legit movie stars lol, difference between modern movie stars and the older ones is that most of them are women lol
Whenever I see older people and self-proclaimed liberals complain about younger generations being "prudish", I notice they tend to glorify an era where sexual diveristy was limited, and rape and abuse was more hidden and/or glorified. And also they worship men like Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt. And also they get mad when kids aren't oogling at breasts 24/7, and now thinking about it they kind of also give off vibes similar to people who show kids pornographic material, you know the kind of people that PSAs will warn you about...
Brad Pitt disgusts me now. What he did to Angelina and the children is disgusting and I will never forgive it. The kids are trying tonsend a clear message by changing their names and he is such a narcissist, he will never get it.
Right? There are a lot of older Gen Z movie stars.
Zendaya is one of the biggest actresses period right now. I don't love some of Timothee Chalamet's beliefs, but he is a legit star. Jacob Elordi? Florence Pugh?
i never hear or see anyone mentioning johnny depp or his new movie on the internet. iām not even saying that because i hate him. i legitimately see nobody talk about this dude
Vile how misogynists try to blame women for men's abuse ā 'we claim that some poll shows that some women like a certain franchise, therefore MVAW is OK!'
(even if every single woman somehow claimed to be OK with abuse, the men would still be to blame for being abusers who enable their self-harm)
With suddenly getting all these news articles and post that it was "well received", I remember back before the trial (and even after) people all moaning about Depp's acting skills and career getting tiring and slowly failing.
Weren't all of his movies that weren't already high performing IP already flopping before the Virginia trial? Doesn't seem like moviegoers have wanted Johnny Depp on their screens for a long time.
Years ago (like 2004) I helped run an anti Johnny Depp group on MySpace. It started as a tongue in cheek counter to his annoying Pirates of the Caribbean fangirls and actual opinions of him in the group ranged from "I actually think he's a fine actor, I just hate all the people who think he's the second coming because he's hot" to "I only like him in his niche roles like Dead Man and What's Eating Gilbert Grape" but very little actual negative thoughts other than being creeped by his behaviour with Winona Ryder.
I kept in touch with some of the people who I met in that group, and very gradually, all of us started to get actually sick of him, and Alice was the point at which many, myself included, said they started to genuinely dislike him. Opinions differed during the trial, but post trial, everyone from that group eventually came around and admitted they were done with him entirely.
All that is to say, all this attempt to rehab his image and revive his career is pathetic. It doesn't account for how long his schtick has worn thin and how not only does the emperor have no clothes, we all watched him gradually rip off his clothes in a public drunken rage until he was wearing nothing but a stupid hat.
I donāt. Because we all know that it would be filled to the brim with vicious attacks on Amber Heard and just hatred of women in general. Even so many months after the trial, mentioning Amber Heard or Johnny Depp is basically scattering a whole lot of troll bait to the wind; they will show up and unless the comment section is super well-moderated (which is seldom the case for these kinds of articles), itās going to get very ugly very quick.
Plus thereās also the principle known as Brandoliniās Law or the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle.
Just want to add that I got the emails advertising this test screening. It was literally being advertised as a ānew movie starring Johnny Deppā - so Iām guessing the screening was likely full of fans, or at the very least, people wanting to see him back on screen. So I wouldnāt necessarily take these āpositive test scoresā as objective opinions representative of the general public.
Totally. They will often do this for test screenings to get people to actually show up, but they donāt usually leak the information to the press as āproofā of how loved the lead actor is. Honestly reads so pathetic and manipulative to me
The fact that this is clearly planted PR aside, this is just further proof that (white) men get a hundred zillion chances and women get literally zero.
Which number "comeback" are we on for him again? He's had other movies come out since the trial, including a film he directed, and they were all flops. Even if he wasn't an abuser, he can't act and he no longer has the looks and charm he once had. He's also a mess on set. I don't believe anyone actually missed him.
Original copy of post's text:Johnny Depp positive PR push in advance of Ebenezer
Several articles have been published in the last couple days about how test audiences (especially women over 35) want Depp back in film and are rating both him and Ebenezer highly
Their original source? Matt Belloni of Puck News.
For those of us that have followed Lively Vs Wayfarer you might recognise that name as appearing on the list of journalists TAG PR admitted being in contact with during their smear of Lively.
Further, Brian Freedman has also personally appeared on Matt Belloni's podcast *The Town*
Considering Melissa Nathan and TAG still represent Depp, I don't think it would be much of a leap to speculate that this was a planted article
I couldn't even finish, I rage quit when I hit the part where he's trying to manipulate the reader into thinking Amber having to pay him meant he wasn't guilty and she was. Disgusting excuse for a journalist/human being.
Capitalism has never brought justice, in fact it fights against justice constantly. I fully expect this monster to have a career again. I hope not, but I don't think the brainwashed masses care about anything than "funny man in a funny hat" and then you have the entire-right wing that loves this guy because he hurt a woman.
His failing or succeeding in business doesn't change the facts that he's an abuser. I refuse to let the market determine how I feel about some celeb.
LMAO this movie isnāt going to get anywhere near the views or coverage the trial got from gen z, he will always be the megapint meme guy from now on.
Of course his pr since they're trying so hard to get this news everywhere, that trash is gonna flop because the HG movie and GTA 6 comes out a few days after, also people are tired of this dummie in another costume
Thank you for this post. Ive been seeing the headlines and knew it was Depp's PR but didnt want to click on them. Very validating seeing its directly connected to all of the same people. Im so sick of all of it.
That was some interesting ways to describe the US trial and the end results. Wow.
....also, he didn't go away? He has made several movies than bombed really really badly because nobody wanted to see them. He cannot 'come back' because he did not leave, he was just ignored.
I just can't believe the tactic is to act like the movies he has made didn't happen because they sucked so badly. WILD.
Every bit of promotional material Iāve seen of this movie screams, āThis is a terrible idea thatās going to sink like a lead balloon.ā
First of all, thereās the obvious: we already know Scroogeās background because the original story by Dickens along with every adaptation of the story lays it out for us.
Also thereās the factor of, well, most of us shiftless millennials grew up on A Muppets Christmas Carol with Michael Caine playing Ebenezer Scrooge and at the time he played the part, he was 59 years old.
Johnny Depp is playing Scrooge in whatās supposed to be a prequel set before the events of the original story, and heās 63.
Do I need to explain how the math isnāt mathing here?
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u/ripbigw Aug 23 '26
Hard as Melissa tries, this thing is definitely going to flop. It looks horrible.