Johnny Depp tagged “Johnny Come Lately” with reports he is unreliable on set

HE’S the star of the show and he knows it. Pirates sources have spilt the beans on Johnny Depp and how he “rules” the movie set.

Johnny Depp’s diva antics revealed

RENOWNED method actor Johnny Depp has reportedly become a little too close to his notorious character Captain Jack Sparrow for comfort.

Depp, who has likened pirates to rock stars in that their fame precedes them, famously based his characterisation of Piratesof the Caribbean protagonist Captain Jack on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards.

PIRATES CASTERS LOOKING FOR NATURALLY “BUSTY WENCHES”

JOHNNY DEPP FLIES HOME AFTER INJURING HIS HAND ON THE COAST

Spotted any Pirates stars on the Gold Coast? Use #PiratesGC on social media

However, some cast and crew on the Gold Coast set of Piratesof the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales are now questioning whether the Hollywood heart-throb is doing too good a job of living up to the rock star cliche, keeping everyone waiting and waiting and wondering what he’ll do next.

Pirates workerssay progress on the fifth instalment of the multi-billion dollar film franchise has stalled since Depp returned to the US last week, reportedly to undergo surgery for a broken wrist.

“Production was halted for three days this week because we had no star and the sets that don’t involve him aren’t ready to go yet,” an insider said.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ON THE GOLD COAST

The cover of Narcisa _ Our Lady of Ashes, a book by author and tattooist Jonathan Shaw.

“The art department and the costume people had to work overtime — again — this week to get things together so they could start filming some scenes without Johnny in them again on Friday (MARCH 20).”

Other Pirates workers said Depp had already disrupted Pirates’ filming schedule before he injured himself during a break from filming on the weekend of March 7-8, often rocking up on set “whenever he feels like it”.

“He was getting called Johnny Come Lately because of it before he went back to the States,” one crew member said yesterday.

“It’s often the case that they don’t know what scenes they are going to be able to shoot any particular day because they never know what time he’ll arrive on set.

“They’ll have a scene set and be ready to go and then they can’t call ‘action’ because Johnny hasn’t shown yet.”

The cast and crew could be left to wait a while longer yet, with Depp named in promotional material as co-presenter of a March 27 book reading by his longtime friend, tattoo artist and author, Jonathan Shaw, in LA.

Depp is republishing Shaw’s cult novel Narcisa — Our Lady of Ashes, a fictional account of a middle-aged “gypsy” named Cigano and his relationship with a prostitute and crack cocaine addict this month on his Harper Collins imprint, Infinitum-Nihil.

“Been waiting too long for this. So have you, whoever you are, believe me … Jonathan Shaw’s words, work, life, lives, deaths, rants, rage, hilarity and taste rank with the best,” Depp raves in promotional material for the launch event.

Author Jonathan Shaw and musician Marilyn Manson.

Shaw, renowned for his subversive text and tatts, and Depp’s mutual friends/fans include the late writer Hunter S. Thompson, who Depp immortalised on film, and musicians Iggy Pop and Marilyn Manson, who Depp strapped on a guitar with and joined onstage in Brisbane last month.

Shaw will perform and read live from Narcisa at the launch, which will also feature music by as-yet unnamed “special guest artists”, tipped to include Manson, Pop and perhaps even Depp.

An official spokesman for Pirates 5 declined to comment on whether Depp would remain in LA for Shaw’s event, or when exactly he would return to Australia.

Dead Men Tell No Tales co-director Joachim Ronning posted another behind-the-scenes picture from the Pirates 5 set this week, this time from what appears to be the deck of a boat on an indoor set at Village Roadshow Studios.

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

The shot, which he tagged “on your marks”, shows extras with tape on their knees standing on marks and over what appears to be a vent with hot coals beneath it.

The image prompted speculation the scene involved crew aboard the Flying Dutchman, the ship captained by Orlando Bloom’s character, Will Turner.

Dead Men Tell No Tales is scheduled for release a decade after the first film in the franchise, At World’s End, in which Will Turner was sent to the bottom of the ocean only able to touch land once every 10 years.

Aussie actor Brenton Thwaites joins the Pirates franchise for Dead Men Tells No Tales as new characterWilliam — Turner’s son.