DUBAI: The cast of Johnny Depp-helmed “Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness” took to the San Sebastian Film Festival red carpet in Spain on Tuesday night to usher in the star’s second directorial feature.
The film was supported by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation through its Red Sea International Film Financing initiative.
Red Sea Film Foundation Managing Director Shivani Pandya, Saudi film producer Mohammed Al-Turki — who was previously the CEO of the Red Sea Film Festival — Depp, and stars Riccardo Scamarcio, Antonia Desplat, Bruno Gouery, Ryan McParland and Luisa Ranieri attended the premiere.
The period flick debuted out of competition in San Sebastian where it earned a long standing ovation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Modi” is Depp’s second directorial effort and comes 27 years after “The Brave,” his debut film as a director. Described as a “seventy-two-hour whirlwind in the life of bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani,” the film follows the artist through a chaotic series of events through the streets of war-time Paris in 1916.
At the press conference ahead of the screening, Depp revealed that co-star Al Pacino advised him to helm the movie. “I got a very strange phone call from Al Pacino who said ‘Do remember this Modigliani project?’ and he said I should direct it,” Depp said, according to Deadline.
“For some reason, Al saw me driving this strange machine. And when Pacino speaks, you listen, so I ran with it. But I had no idea what it would be until the pieces of the puzzle came together.”