Johnny Depp, Yellow Bird Productions team for Shakespeare series

PanARMENIAN.Net - Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil has partnered with leading Scandinavian producer Yellow Bird Productions, which is behind the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films, and Emmy-winning writer-producer Tom Fontana for a scripted series based on the plays of William Shakespeare, Deadline reported.

Young writer Randall Fontana (no relation to Tom Fontana) will write the project, described as a modern take on the plays of The Bard, building on the existing characters and plots from several of his most notable plays. Infinitum Nihil, which is run by Depp’s sister Christi Dembrowski, Yellow Bird Prods, and Tom Fontana will executive produce.

Infinitum Nihil is currently in production on the Depp starrer for Disney The Lone Ranger. The company’s feature credits also include Hugo, Dark Shadows and The Rum Diary. In TV, Infinitum and Graham King’s GK TV are developing a period drama about The Hollywood Reporter founder William Wilkerson at Lifetime. Zodiak-owned Yellow Bird produced The Millennium trilogy, which included the three Swedish feature films and six TV movies based on Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo books. The company also produced 26 Swedish films about Inspector Wallander and co-produced with Left Bank a Wallander BBC limited series starring Kenneth Branagh.

Fontana has experience with period dramas and international co-productions. He is the creator/executive producer of the breakout BBC America drama Copper, produced by the U.S. division of Canadian producer Cineflix, and of the French-German drama Borgia.