Johnny Depp is returning to Italy. After his last show with his band, the Hollywood Vampires (featuring Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith) at the 2018 Lucca Summer Festival, the actor-musician-director will be celebrated with a lifetime achievement award at the 2024 Rome Film Fest, which will be held from October 16 to 27.
Depp will also present his latest directorial project at the festival: Modi – Three Days on the Wings of Madnesswhich tells the turbulent life of artist Amedeo Modigliani in Paris in 1916. Starring Riccardo Scamarcio, Al Pacino and Antonia Desplat, the film will be screened in Rome after its world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Rome's honor comes as Depp seeks to put his legal battles with ex-wife Amber Heard behind him. While his Hollywood career has yet to fully recover from the negative publicity surrounding his divorce, he remains popular internationally and continues to be embraced by the film community in Europe. In 2023, he opened the Cannes Film Festival with Joan of Barry by the French director Maïwenn.
Other high-profile attendees at the 19th edition of the Rome Fest include Viggo Mortensen and Francis Ford Coppola, both of whom are set to receive special honors. Mortensen will be there to introduce his western The dead don't hurt starring Vicky Krieps. The film is his second feature film as a director, following the 2020 drama Fallingstarring Lance Henriksen. Coppola will screen Megalopolishis epic feature film about an ambitious architect (Adam Driver) determined to rebuild the fictional city of New Rome after a devastating disaster.