The Johnny Depp Amber Heard Trial Movie Will Be Free

Tubi will be streaming Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial for free. It will detail Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's time together and apart.

By Mark McKee | Published

There is no shortage of movies and TV series based on real-life trials; films like The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime StoryErin Brokovich, and A Few Good Men are some of the most popular. Now a new film is going to document the trial that captured the attention of the entire country over the summer of 2022, the defamation trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

While every streaming service in existence would love to get their hands on the rights to cash in on the country’s fascination with the trial, according to Deadline, the film will be released for free on Tubi. 

Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial stars Mark Hapka as Johnny Depp and Megan Davis as Amber Heard; it is written by Guy Nicolucci and produced by Sara Lohman. Fox Entertainment and Tubi fast-tracked the production of the film in order to capture a timely take on the trial that captured the fascination and focus of the entire nation. It was only a matter of time before someone put a dramatized version of the events; it remains to be seen how accurate the film will be and whether or not it takes an objective position on the circumstances. 

Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial will detail the tumultuous marriage between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard that ended in 2016 under accusations of abuse by the Pirates of the Caribbean actor. The divorce resulted in an op-ed written by Heard and published in The Washington Post, detailing the alleged abuse she received at the hands of Depp. In response, Depp filed a defamation lawsuit from which he won a $10 million judgment, and Heard won $2 million of her own against Depp. 

After the op-ed released by Amber Heard in The Washington Post in the midst of the #MeToo movement, Johnny Depp lost his roles in both Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic Beasts franchises. He became one of the many blacklisted actors that fell victim to the movement’s attempt to clear the industry of the predatory men in Hollywood. The result was the fall of one of Hollywood’s biggest names and the uncertain future of multiple lucrative franchises. 

Amber Heard’s career began to take off as she had three movies released the same year as the op-ed, Her SmellLondon Fields, and her most significant role, Aquaman. She also became one of the faces of the #MeToo movement as she represented women who were victims of some of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and her op-ed about Johnny Depp represented the courage to speak out against your abusers. 

During the trial, the public opinion turned on Amber Heard as her trial lawyers seemed to botch every opportunity to turn the proceedings in her favor. Johnny Depp’s attorneys appeared to have the opposite effect as they swapped the public image of Heard and Depp by making their client look like the victim and Heard look like the abuser and manipulator. The result was the resurgence of Depp and his career and the beginning of the fall for Heard and her career.