From The Bad and the Ugly comes word that Johnny Depp’s next project just might the adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary.

This comes from a casting announcement, which lists a March 2009 start date for filming. Depp will play Paul Kemp, a freelance journalist writing for a rundown newspaper in 1950s Puerto Rico, surrounded by a bunch of lost souls bent on self destruction.

Bruce Robinson has penned and will direct the feature.