Johnny Depp has dropped out of Black Mass, Barry Levinson's biopic about famed Boston gangster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The 49-year-old was reportedly to have been paid $20 million, his usual fee, but with sales of the film at Cannes lower than expected, producers were looking to cut the budget, which is in the high $60 million range. Depp was apparently asked to take half his salary, and the actor and his reps at UTA refused. The situation came to a head Wednesday.

The producers, Cross Creek and Exclusive hope to save Black Mass by hiring another actor, it is unclear how Depp's departure will affect the involvement of actor Joel Edgerton, who recently agreed to play an FBI agent in the film.

The gangster movie, to be helmed by Rain Man director Levinson, was supposed to start shooting immediately after Depp wrapped Wally Pfister's sci-fi film Transcendence, which is currently shooting, and before starting production on Disney's 2015's Pirates of the Caribbean 5,

Depp can next be seen as Tonto in Disney's The Lone Ranger, which also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Barry Pepper, Tom Wilkinson and Armie Hammer as the title character.

Depp reunited the successful team behind the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, for the film, whick may be another potentially huge summer blockbuster.

Disney, however, came under fire recently, accused of perpetuating stereotypes through the character of Tonto. In the film, Depp speaks broken English and is adorned with feathers, a face painted white with black stripes, and a stuffed crow on his head.

Depp said he honors the proud American Indian warrior and displays a dry sense of humor seen throughout Indian Country, according to The Huffington Post. The production hired a Comanche adviser, making it decidedly a Comanche story, and received the blessing of other tribes through ceremonies during filming.

Hanay Geiogamah, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma who advised Disney on Pocahontas, said Depp's Tonto comes off as a mystical, radical modernization of the character played by Jay Silverheels in the 1950s, which is by far the most recognizable.

"You can say, 'well, American Indians are going to like this one more,'" Geiogamah said.

"Are they going to respond more positively to the Johnny Depp Tonto? You're still responding to a non-Indian, stereotypical image," he added.

The Lone Ranger opens in theaters in North American on July 3.

View a trailer for The Lone Ranger below.



Tags: Johnny Depp Lone Ranger Disney Barry Levinson Black Mass Pirates of the Caribbean 5