Johnny Depp has gotten pretty good at playing across the pond outlaws, from Captain Jack Sparrow to this winter’s Sweeney Todd, and now he’ll be kicking ass and taking names here in the heartland. He’s agreed to star in Public Enemies for director Michael Mann, a drama set in Depression-era Chicago. Depp will play John Dillinger, one of the most legendary gangsters of the era.

Dillinger’s real-life story is the stuff every gangster film is made of, from multiple stints in jail and bank robberies to a legend about escaping prison by making a fake gun out of a potato, blackening it with shoe polish, and using it to threaten the authorities. He died a classic mobster death, set up by a femme fatale and shot in the back while on his way out of the movies. He was also known for exhibiting acrobatic grace when conducting bank robberies, like leaping over the counter to get to the money. His Wikipedia entry has all sorts of other cool details. In real life he looked like the guy pictured at right, but aren’t you already picturing Johnny Depp here?

Though Depp is the talk of the town thanks to his brilliant performance in Sweeney Todd, his schedule has been wide open for a while after production got shut down on Shantaram. The Mira Nair film would have seen Depp as—get this—an Australian ex-con who moves to Bombay and pretends to be a doctor. The movie will likely happen eventually when the writers’ strike is over, which guarantees that Johnny Depp will remain the reigning king of totally out-there roles.