Josh Hartnett has revealed to The BBC that Bruce Robinson ("Withnail & I", "Jennifer 8") has taken over from Benicio del Toro as director of the adaptation of Hunter S. Thomspon's "The Rum Diary."
Originally scheduled to shoot in December of 2003, the project has been in limbo for almost two years now due to assorted problems. Penned in 1959 by a then 20-year-old Thompson, the writer's first novel is a bitter little tale about angry men and one angry woman. It follows Paul Kemp, a hard-drinking, peripatetic cold war-era journalist who boosts himself out of New York for a stint in the sun in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Kemp is hoping for a tropical respite but instead wanders into a bad situation.
The Puerto Ricans, fed up with greedy, prejudiced Americans, have been beating up the reporters for the News, Kemp's employer. Kemp, rarely sober, soon finds himself on the receiving end, along with his comrades, a moody photographer named Sala, and Yeamon, a guy who attracts trouble like his pretty little girlfriend attracts men.
Thanks to 'Cannon Fodder'
