Johnny Depp drops out of "Black Mass" over salary cut

Johnny Depp has dropped out of"Black Mass," Barry Levinson's biopic about famed Boston gangster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Depp was reportedly set to be paid his usual fee of $20 million (which would come to roughly a third of the movie's total budget), but sources say that he was asked to cut that number in half due to reported soft sales at Cannes, but Depp and his reps were none too pleased about this idea, so they cut loose. (A producer source defended the film, saying the sales were on target.)

The gangster movie, to be helmed by "Rain Man" director Levinson, was supposed to start shooting immediately after Depp wrapped Wally Pfister's sci-fi film "Transcendence" (currently being shot) and before setting sail on Disney's 2015's "Pirates of the Caribbean 5."

Depp can next be seen in "The Lone Ranger" which rides through theaters on July 3 in North America.