Free streaming of Johnny Depp's triple-canceled film
The actor Johnny Depp appears to be on a path to complete career rehabilitation. Disney has brought Captain Jack Sparrow back to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride after several years in the proverbial Hollywood wilderness, and he has begun producing a movie in which he plays one of the more terrible kings of France. There is a sense that things for Johnny Depp are finally going to work out for him after case after case of legal troubles has been resolved. He has, however, starred in a movie in which three of the leading actors were canceled throughout their careers and he has a unique experience. Directed by the infamous European director Roman Polanski, The Ninth Gate is a supernatural thriller from 1999 featuring Johnny Depp and disgraced actor Frank Langella.
Johnny Depp stars in The Ninth Gate as Dean Corso, an unscrupulous dealer of rare books hired by Boris Balkan, another unscrupulous, mysteriously wealthy collector. A mysterious book titled The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows has been found by Frank Langella, and it seems to possess the power to summon Satan himself, but the book comes with a catch. There appear to be three copies of the book, but only one is genuine. Even though a book that will allow the Prince of Darkness access to the mortal world seems intrinsically dangerous, fake books can cause harm to anyone who uses them. In The Ninth Gate, Johnny Depp travels across Europe in search of which book is true and comes to believe more and more in the power of occult knowledge as the movie progresses.
He meets a widow of Frank Langella's copy of the book along the way and encounters a mysterious blonde woman repeatedly throughout the film known only as The Girl. The movie reveals a darker world of murder and Satanic rituals, and Johnny Depp's sanity begins to be questioned as the movie reveals a darker world of murder and Satanic rituals. Three controversial figures form a strange trifecta in The Ninth Gate. The odd career of Johnny Depp has taken him from Tiger Beat heartthrob to Tim Burton star to critical darling of independent films to Disney clown to alleged domestic abuser. Although Johnny Depp has been a world-famous actor for playing Captain Jack Sparrow for decades, his legal battles with his estranged ex-wife Amber Heard are what made him famous in the first place.
In addition to being a celebrated actor on stage, film, and television, co-star Frank Langella has also appeared in numerous films and television shows. In addition to winning four Tony Awards for Frost/Nixon and being nominated for an Academy Award, he co-starred in the acclaimed Cold War drama The Americans on FX. He has consistently claimed his favorite role as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe, where he also played Skeletor. For allegations of misconduct, he was fired from a film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher in 2022. He followed up with a notorious Deadline column in which he called himself "canceled," seemingly in response to the accusations and for self-defense. Even though it didn't draw headlines like Johnny Depp-Amber Heard's defamation case, a legendary actor quickly slipped from grace.
One of the most infamous directors of his time, Roman Polanski, was accused in 1977 of sexually assaulting a minor and subsequently went from a celebrated filmmaker to a controversial figure. The trial led him to flee the US and he is considered a fugitive. In the years since, his career (as has Johnny Depp's) has risen, fallen, and risen again, but his films have become largely a footnote to his allegations. As neo-noir thrillers from the late 1990s, The Ninth Gate is decent, but slow-paced film that evokes vaguely Satanic imagery similar to the Devil's Advocate, Stigmata, and The Prophecy. Critics mostly dismissed it as inferior to Roman Polanski's earlier Satanic masterpiece, Rosemary's Baby, and it did tolerably well at the box office. There is a place where you can watch three controversial, canceled men work together if you are dying for it.