Johnny Depp eyes 'Thin Man' remake

LOS ANGELES – Johnny Depp and director Rob Marshall, now in production on the fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, will reunite on a remake of the classic private eye movie "The Thin Man."

The Warner Bros. project is out to writers for a take that would give a Sherlock Holmes treatment (meaning to contemporize the attitude but retain the period setting) to the story.

The property is based on a 1934 Dashiell Hammett novel that centered on former private detective-turned-professional drunkard Nick Charles, his lovely socialite wife Nora and their schnauzer Asta. The couple investigates a murder involving an eccentric inventor and his bizarre family.

Hammett never wrote a sequel, but a 1934 movie, which starred William Powell and Myrna Loy, spawned five. A TV show followed in the 1950s.