Netflix reportedly backs Johnny Depp’s upcoming French film about King Louis XV

Netflix will finance and stream an upcoming French film starring Johnny Depp as King Louis XV, according to a report.

Depp, 59, was announced as the star of “La Favorite” in January. He hasn’t appeared in a Hollywood production since losing his U.K. libel suit against a paper that called him a “wife beater.”

“La Favorite” is expected to debut in France in 2023 and then stream on Netflix France about 15 months later, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Netflix will also co-finance the movie, sources told the outlet.

No Depp films have been released in the U.S. since “Waiting for Barbarians” in 2020. He made another movie, “Minamata,” in the meantime, but its American release has been consistently delayed. It remains unclear if “La Favorite” will be released stateside.

Depp’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, first accused Depp of domestic violence in 2016. In 2020, he lost a libel suit against a U.K. newspaper and was subsequently removed from J.K. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts” series and ignored by American studios. He responded by suing Heard for defamation, a case he won in June.

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