Johnny Depp is in talks to star as a drug addict in the fact-based film "Shantaram," Variety reports.

The movie, based on the novel by Gregory David Roberts, tells the story of an Australian heroin addict convicted of robbery who flees to India, where he reinvents himself as a doctor.

He eventually slips back into a life of crime, where he gets involved in gunrunning and smuggling and winds up in Afghanistan, battling against Russian troops.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump") has been hired to adapt the film.

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