Wild and Wacky First Trailer for Hunter S. Thompson Adaptation 'The Rum Diary'

 Source: YouTube and /Film

This past Thursday the first trailer for the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary finally hit the 'net. The film, directed by Bruce Robinson and starring Johnny Depp (this is Depp's second role in a Hunter S. Thompson movie, the first being Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), centers on journalist Paul Kemp and his move to Puerto Rico after becoming sick of the United States. Once there, Kemp develops affinities for rum and a woman named Chenault, the fiancée of a wealthy corrupt businessman. Aaron Eckhart plays Sanderson the businessman and Amber Heard is Chenault. The Rum Diary saw a decade of development before being completed. Production occurred in 2009, and a release has been held back since. See the official synopsis (via the film's official YouTube channel) after the break.

Based on the debut novel by Hunter S. Thompson, "The Rum Diary" tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp). Tiring of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper, The San Juan Star, run by downtrodden editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked life of the island, Paul soon becomes obsessed with Chenault (Amber Heard), the wildly attractive Connecticut-born fiancée of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart). Sanderson, a businessman involved in shady property development deals, is one of a growing number of American entrepreneurs who are determined to convert Puerto Rico into a capitalist paradise in service of the wealthy. When Kemp is recruited by Sanderson to write favorably about his latest unsavory scheme, the journalist is presented with a choice: to use his words for the corrupt businessmen's financial benefit, or use them to take the bastards down.

Tropical aerial shots? Check. Beautiful women? Check. Alcohol? Check. LSD prompted hallucination of a one foot human tongue? Check! Sure enough, The Rum Diary looks about as ridiculous as any Hunter S. Thompson adaptation should be. Johnny Depp's trademark quips and unfiltered yelling are as obvious as ever, though there is a lack of the fashionably questionable piles of accessories he usually dons. Depp's semi-quirky humor seems to fit well with the absurdity of the rest of the movie, not to mention his ability to act while on drug trips and drunken escapades (Oh he was acting that way? My bad.) This comes off as pretty entertaining, but I've felt this way before when it comes to the hey-look-this-movie-is-sort-of-absurd-so-that's-the-main-marketing-point types of films (often times they and up having a poor script and go to die in the second act). I would love to see The Rum Diary end up being more than the usual fare, and so far there's potential for that to be the case.

The Rum Diary drunkenly stumbles into theaters October 28th.