Also just wondering what Johnny will be doing from July to the end of this year in terms of his acting profession. He could certainly use a nice long vacation but he will probably try to squeeze in another movie?
We are wondering the same thing, jimbo! In general, Johnny is a workaholic and doesn't often have much downtime. But there have been exceptions, including the early 00's and the 2nd half of '07 (he took time off between Sweeney Todd and Public Enemies). With all the projects that are on his plate right now, I would've expected him to have something lined up for this fall. On the other hand, one one board someone reminded us that he's just made 4 (4!!) films in the past 15 months: Public Enemies, Alice In Wonderland, Rango and The Rum Diary. So maybe it's time for another break, though I certainly think he could indeed squeeze something else in this year.
I just found out that his partner, Vanessa Paradis, is filming a movie right now, and once the Public Enemies premieres are over with, he may just want to be with her and the kids while she is filming. Also, his production company has a lot of stuff in development (many of which he won't star in) so it's possible he may spend the time getting the ball rolling on some of those. My personal wish is that he'll do some kind of musical project. I run a website devoted to Johnny's musical pursuits and try to keep up with news about that, and last year there was a rumor that he might start a record label-- maybe wishful thinking but I'd love to see it happen.
Anyway, if DS wasn't on the verge of being greenlit by now, I really don't see how it could come together this year. Sam Sarkar seemed very confident, but maybe the script needed more tweaking, and as quite a few people have mentioned, it may be more a matter of waiting for Tim Burton than for Johnny at this stage. This is probably why the folks involved with movies don't say a lot before things are pretty solid, because so many things can happen to slow a project down and too many fans like us start to jump the gun
But I agree with MB in that I'd rather have them take a little longer and be fully ready to do it. The bright side is that Johnny seems genuinely thrilled to be doing it, and since he's producing it as well, we know he's going to be firing on all cylinders to do it right!
Cathy