Johnny Depp has head hunted filmmaker Mira Nair to direct his new film. Shantaram will star Depp in the lead role, and will be co-produced by Depp's Infinitum Nihil and Brad Pitt's production company Plan B, who bought the rights to the Gregory David Roberts-penned book for $2 million.

Director Peter Weir has quit new film Shantaram after failing to see eye-to-eye with Johnny Depp. The director and Depp, who is also producing the film, had creative differences on how to approach the story.