Johnny Depp is set to play celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith in upcoming drama Minamata.

Based on the book by Smith and his wife, Aileen Mioko Smith, and adapted for screen by David K. Kessler, the film is being directed by Andrew Levitas, and is being billed as a "real life David versus Goliath story," pitting Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, a Japanese fishing village, in 1971.

With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from society and his career. But an old friend and a commission from "Life Magazine" editor Ralph Graves convince Smith to journey back to Japan to expose a big story: the devastating annihilation of a coastal community, victims of corporate greed and complicit local police and government.

Source: Press Release