The movie has a loaded cast. In addition to Depp (playing Bulger), the movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott, Dakota Johnson, Juno Temple and Jesse Plemons. The cast will look even starrier next fall, after Edgerton shows up in this winter's Exodus: Gods And Kings, Johnson pops up in Fifty Shades Of Gray and Cumberbatch possibly earns an Oscar for The Imitation Game. Scott Cooper is the director in charge of wrangling these talented names.

James Whitey Bulger’s time as a mob boss, criminal mastermind and fugitive from the law contained all sorts of misdirections and bizarre 180s; so, it only makes sense his biopic, Black Mass, would bring some weirdness with it too. With production already under way, Benedict Cumberbatch has reportedly been tapped to play the role of Billy Bulger, the notorious mobster’s politician brother.

Black Mass is the long in-development biopic about gangster Whitey Bulger that will tell the story of all his criminal dealings during the years when he was Boston's biggest kingpin. Depp will be playing the lead, while the supporting cast will include Joel Edgerton (as FBI agent and Bulger's childhood friend John Connolly) and Guy Pearce (as Whitey's brother Bill Bulger).

Black Mass tells the true story of Whitey Bulger as me rose to prominance as one of the most powerful mob bosses in Boston. He also spent years as an FBI informant who gave up a great number of his competitors in order to keep his business thriving.

Depp has officially signed on to star in Black Mass, a biopic that will chronicle the highlights of career criminal Bulger, who went from Boston's cruel kingpin to a fugitive at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list. Joining him in this endeavor could be English hunk Tom Hardy

Depp joined the film almost a full year ago when Barry Levinson was attached to helm, but the actor exited the indie production because Cross Creek Pictures and Exclusive Media thought it was ridiculous that the star wanted $23 million to play the part.

While the report doesn't get very specific, apparently the issue is in sorting out the star's deal and that "things aren’t looking great at the moment." It's an interesting development given that just two weeks ago the production added Aussie rising star Joel Edgerton to the cast as FBI Agent John Connolly, a childhood friend of Bulger's who tipped the kingpin off when the cops were ready to knock down his door.

Edgerton will be playing the role of John Connolly, an FBI agent who also happened to be a childhood friend of Bulger's. It's suggested that it was because of Connolly's help that Bulger, a crime lord in Boston, Massachusetts, was able to evade capture and disappear off the grid.

Bulger was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. The Mafioso, who spent years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list before his capture in 2011, protected the criminals of Boston’s chief neighborhoods, but largely went unbothered because he reportedly worked as an informant to the FBI in exchange for certain freedoms.