“It was a crazy, completely nuts idea that somehow we pulled off,” Adam McKay, another of the site’s co-founders, told the New York Times. McKay has been nominated in the best director at the forthcoming Oscar’s for his financial comedy The Big Short.
The website also released a minute-long trailer to promote their ‘biopic’.
Depp reportedly spent four days in December making the film after being approached by McKay earlier in the year. Funny or Die’s editor in chief, Owen Burke, described Depp’s performance “absolutely bananas” and explained that keeping the film secret was surprisingly easy.
“We had a few people sign non-disclosures, but mostly we just begged people not to say anything,” Burke said. “The plan was to move really fast because we thought Trump would go away, as least as a presidential candidate. When he bizarrely didn’t go away, we had a little more time. But that meant keeping the secret for longer.”
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