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Besides “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” How Else Has Hunter S. Thompson Appeared On the Big Screen?

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Aside from Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), which stars Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson’s alter ego Raoul Duke, the hard partying gonzo journalist has appeared on the silver screen several other times.

Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) stars Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson and Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstein (1974), Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)) as Carl Lazlo, Esq., a character heavily inspired by Thompson’s real-life attorney Oscar Zeta. Where the Buffalo Roam is based on articles “The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat” and “Strange Rumblings in Aztlan,” both of which Thompson published for Rolling Stone magazine. This comedic autobiographical film is a heavily fictionalized account of the writer’s attempt to cover the Super Bowl and the 1972 U.S presidential election.

After meeting Hunter S. Thompson and portraying him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp starred in another adaptation based on a novel by the former Rolling Stone journalist: The Rum Diary (2011).

Written for the screen and directed by Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I (1987)), The Rum Diary stars Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp, a failed author who lands a job writing for a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Though Thompson began the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name in 1959, “The Rum Diary” wasn’t published until 1998, when Depp himself discovered it amongst Thompson’s papers.

Thompson’s appearances on the big screen are not limited to feature films. There have been a number of documentaries over the years that extensively chronicle his exploits. Some of these include Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978), an extended television profile that aired on the BBC, as well as Wayne Ewing’s Breakfast with Hunter (2003), and Tom Thurman’s Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film (2006).

But, perhaps, the defining documentary on Thompson is Academy-Award winning documentarian Alex Gibney’s Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008). Other documentaries by Gibney include Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2003), Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer (2010), Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012), and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015).

Unfortunately, in 2005, Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. His son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were all visiting at the time. But, still, ten years after his death, Thompson remains a counterculture icon with his unique style of journalism and his outlaw persona.

During a press event for The Rum Diary, Depp stated that he hoped to someday adapt Thompson’s 1983 book “The Curse of Lono,” which described the author’s experiences in Hawaii in 1980. He also wished for an adaptation of “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” Thompson’s seminal sports article on the 1970 Kentucky Derby, and “Hell’s Angels,” an up-close and personal look into the infamous motorcycle gang. “There’s great comfort in it for me, because I get a great visit with my old friend who I miss dearly,” Depp said of Thompson’s work.