Johnny Depp to Portray Salvador Dali

Johnny Depp is holding auditions to find screenwriters for the Peter Rawley-produced ‘Dali' picture and he is going to depict Spanish painter Salvador Dali in the movie. He is holding an open audition to seek for screenwriters as he wants the best possible script he could get. A source commented the scribblers audition saying, “He's open to working with anyone, from housewives to pensioners, if the script is right.” All he needs now is a script. And apparently he doesn't really care who it comes from, just as long as it's good. Depp is not the only Hollywood star set to portray the eccentric artist on the big screen. Al Pacino and Peter O'Toole are being lined up to star in rival movies, ‘Dali and I: The Surreal Story' and ‘Goodbye Dali'. Asked why so many films were being made 18 years after the artist's death, Peter Rawley, producer of Dali, said: “Film-makers somehow pick up on the vibe. But three films is nothing, at one stage, we counted up to nine.” ‘Dali & I: The Surreal Story', to be directed by Andrew Niccol will tell of the painter's relationship with the art-dealer Stan Lauryssen, on whose autobiography it is based. The biopic covers the life of Salvador Dali through the eyes of Stan Lauryssens, an art dealer who knew Dali and his wife Gala personally. The movie will span the 1960s-1980s, covering Dali's later period when most of this great work was behind him while he became more flamboyant, and focusing on a mentor-protégé relationship between Dali and Lauryssens David Permut is producing ‘Goodbye Dalí', with locations in Spain and New York. The screen-play by Yaniv Raz and Allan Rich is based on the friendship of Rich, when he was a young art-dealer, with Dalí. Mr Permut said: “My philosophy has always been that people will come if you make a good movie.” Mr Rawley, a British-born Hollywood producer, said: “From what we can tell, the other films are more about Dalí's wife and art-dealers. Ours is about his life.”