Gregory David Roberts' "Shantaram: A Novel," which is scheduled for publication next week by St. Martin's Press, has attracted the attention of Warner Bros. Together, they have acquired film rights to the novel as a starring vehicle for Depp in a deal said to be worth $1 million-$2 million. Depp would play the novel's narrator, a young Australian man who escapes from a prison Down Under and goes on to build a new life for himself in the slums of India before going to fight with insurgents in their struggle against the Russians in Afghanistan.

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