Through December 5 - 12, 2011, Harris Interactive surveyed 2,237 adults in America to see who their favourite actors and actresses were. Johnny Depp, of course, came in first place for the SECOND year in a row! Congratulations, Johnny! :) 

Source: Harris Interactive

In 2011 he was the voice of Rango, he was Captain Jack Sparrow (again) and he was also a journalist. And, again this year, Johnny Depp has the distinction of being America’s Favorite Actor. Next on the list are two actors who haven’t actually acted in a movie this past year. Tied for number two are Denzel Washington, who was in the second spot last year, and Clint Eastwood who was number 9 on the list last year.

According to the poll, (among different groups of people) Johnny Depp is the favourite actor for women, Republicans, Independents, Conservatives, Liberals, adults aged 18-65 (this includes the Echo Boomers, Gen X, and Baby Boomer generations), and people who live on the East and West coasts, along with the Midwest.

Too see who else made the list, and to see other statistics of the poll, then click here.

Source: KOB.com

The shooting starts in February for the long-awaited Lone Ranger movie starring Johnny Depp as Tonto, a project that once appeared to be doomed.

On Friday, Gov. Susana Martinez announced the movie will begin production in New Mexico.

“The Lone Ranger is proof New Mexico’s film industry is alive and well,” she said.

At one point the movie’s producers threatened to shoot it in Louisiana, when Martinez called for cutbacks in the state’s sweet rebate deal for the film industry.

Read more here.

Part of an interview with Tim Burton in which he discusses Dark Shadows.

Source: MTV

MTV: What stage are you in for “Dark Shadows” right now?

Burton: Panicking. That stage. We’re editing and doing effects. It’s not an effects-heavy picture, but it’s still got stuff in there. There’s a strange tone to the movie. That’s always what’s fun about movies. You never know exactly what they are. It makes it both exciting and scary and why you like doing it. I have to keep remembering that.

MTV : With over 1,200 episodes of the original series to draw upon, what was important to you to retain?

Burton: It’s got such a strange vibe. And it’s not something that a lot of people necessarily know. You’re trying to do a weird soap opera. I felt really lucky, because the cast is really good. People like Michelle [Pfeiffer] grew up watching it. Some of the cast knew about it. Some didn’t, but they were all game for it — getting into the weird spirit of what “Dark Shadows” was. It has a weird sense of heightened melodrama. There was a generation of us who would run home from school to watch it. That’s probably why we were such bad students. We should have been doing homework; we were watching “Dark Shadows” instead. It was hard to put into words the tone it was. It had a weird seriousness, but it was funny in a way that wasn’t really funny. We just had to feel our way through it to find the tone. We didn’t do any real rehearsals, because the cast all came in at different times. But there was an old photo of the [original] cast which I always remembered, so a couple days before shooting, we got the whole cast together to take a similar shot so everyone could see each other and get that vibe from doing a group photo. That helped set the tone more than anything.

Read the rest of the interview here.

The script for PIRATES 5 is currently being rewritten by Terry Rossio. Also, Rob Marshall may be directing it.

Marshall has signed a two-year deal with Disney. (It involves him being director of an upcoming Disney film INTO THE WOODS.) He’s staying up-to-date on the development of Pirates 5, although he has not officially committed to being director yet. Along with Johnny Depp, Marshall seems to be waiting on a finished script before he commits to the film.

What Rob Marshall has to say about Pirates 5:

“Terry [Rossio] is writing it and he’s working incredibly hard and he did a draft and rethought it all and started working on it again. You want to make sure you are asking the audience to come back to see an exciting adventure and it has to reach that caliber, and if not there’s no reason to do it. I know Johnny feels the same way: He needs to see a script, but he would be happy — if it’s the right script — to put that hat and sword back on.”

Read more about this at Screen Rant and The Hollywood Reporter.

EDIT: It seems that I caused a little confusion because I misread the articles. Oops! Marshall’s two-year Disney deal just involves him directing Into The Woods - NOT The Thin Man. The Thin Man will be produced by Warner Bros.; Marshall is still directing it though, with Johnny to star in it. :) With that being said, I corrected what I previously wrote. Sorry about that!