MUMBAI: Johnny Depp is all set to play the lead in a big screen adaptation of the crime novel The Thin Man. But, the actor reportedly wants his Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director Rob Marshall to helm the project. So keen is Depp in the project, that he is looking to develop a script with producers Infinitum Nihil.

The Thin Man, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett, is about Nick Charles, a detective who gives up his job when he marries a wealthy socialite, ending up as an alcoholic. However, he is drawn back for one last job investigating a murder and he takes his wife along with him.

But the director is already in talks to work a movie based on the musical theatre show Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and may find it difficult to take up the film.

Depp, meanwhile, is currently filming the fourth instalment of Pirates.