First Look Photo: ‘Minamata’ starring Johnny Depp

Principal Photography has begun on “Minamata,” directed by filmmaker, writer, and acclaimed artist Andrew Levitas and starring three-time Academy-Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Johnny Depp as celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith. 

Developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil, Depp will also produce the film. 

Bill Nighy has joined the cast of Minamata which will co-star Minami (Vision), acclaimed actor Hiroyuki Sanada (Avengers: Endgame, Westworld, Mr. Holmes, The Twilight Samurai), Tadanobu Asano (Silence, The Outsider, Thor, Midway), Ryo Kase (Letters from Iwo Jima, Restless, Silence, Like Someone in Love), and Jun Kunimura (Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2, Midway).  The famed Yôko Narahashi (Earthquake Bird, Unbroken) is the casting director on the film which is currently underway in locations in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.

Minamata is based on the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith and adapted by David K. Kessler (A Hard Day’s Day). The redemptive thriller, a real-life David versus Goliath story, pits Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata – Japan in 1971.