Peter Weir and Johnny Depp are teaming up to make Shantaram.
The story follows an Australian heroin addict who escapes from a high-security prison and flees to India, where he reinvents himself as doctor in Bombay’s slums. His attempts to find treatments for his penniless patients leads his back into a life of crime that includes counterfeiting, gun-running and smuggling.
Weir is developing the script with The Insider’s Eric Roth and plans to shoot the film late next year.