The Rum Diary (2011) on Netflix
Paul Kemp, a journalist who cannot sell a book, joins a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He rooms with Sala, drinks hard, and meets Chenault, who is engaged to Sanderson.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.1/10110,521 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes51%
Trailer
Plot summary
Paul Kemp, an author who has never managed to sell a book, arrives in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for work at a local newspaper. His editor, Lotterman, hands him tourist pieces and horoscopes while promising better. Sala, the paper's photographer, warns him the paper may fold and takes him drinking, which earns the editor's anger. Kemp meets Sanderson, a wealthy entrepreneur with a plan to buy an island off the coast and build a resort, who offers him public relations work. Sanderson's fiancée, Chenault, pretends not to know Kemp when they meet again. Living with Sala in a rundown flat, Kemp sees the poverty around San Juan, which Lotterman will not let him cover because it would hurt tourism.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Rum Diary (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Robinson had been sober for six-and-a-half years before he started writing the screenplay, then found himself suffering from writer's block and started drinking a bottle of wine a day until he finished the script, after which he quit drinking again.
- Depp compared playing Paul Kemp to his previous role in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, saying "the character of Paul Kemp is Raoul Duke as he was learning to speak. It was like playing the same character, only 15 years before."
- Shooting Gallery and SPi Films sought to adapt the novel in 2000 with Johnny Depp signed to star and executive produce and Nick Nolte alongside him, but it never passed development and the author fired off an obscenity-laden letter about the process.
- In 2002 a new producer sought the project and Benicio del Toro and Josh Hartnett were signed to star in the film adaptation, but that second incarnation also did not move past the development stage.
- Several actresses including Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley reportedly expressed interest in the role of Chenault, however some "had reservations regarding the nudity the role calls for"; Amber Heard was cast in the role.
