Now that he has spent the past few years spinning his wheels in fantastical yet underwhelming wannabe blockbusters (Dark Shadows anyone?), Johnny Depp is looking to take on a more reality-based role for one of his next films. The venerable superstar has signed on to play the notorious Boston mobster James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger in Black Mass, to be directed by Barry Levinson from a screenplay by Mark Mallouk.

The film will be based on Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, a 2001 New York Times best-selling true crime tome written by Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill. The book documented how Bulger was the most feared crime boss in Boston at the same time he was an informant for the FBI. He served as the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s Boston gangster Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Oscar-winning crime story The Departed. For 12 years, Bulger was one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted. He was finally captured in Santa Monica, California, in June 2011 and currently resides in a correctional facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Hot off the heels from its appearance at New York City’s Comic-Con this past weekend comes film footage from The Bay, the newest film from the Academy Award-winning prolific director Barry Levinson, which has a narrative mired in the thriller genre focusing on a cover-up in a small town in Maryland in which an outbreak of mysterious proportions leads to an epidemic responsible for the deaths of over 700 townsfolk.

You can see our full coverage of the NYCC panel: NYCC 2012: Barry Levinson’s “˜The Bay’ Panel. The footage can be glimpsed below, along with the offical synopsis from Roadside Attractions, who is set to debut the film on November 2, 2012 in theaters and On Demand.

Barry Levinson, the Oscar-winning director who has been a cinematic jack of all trades for decades in the film industry, spanning genres with films like Diner, Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam, Wag the Dog and the doomed from the start fantasy yarn Toys, dips his director’s cap into the supernatural well with The Bay, which was showcased in a panel on Saturday at the IGN Theater at New York Comic-Con.

The Bay, a seemingly compelling cover-up tale starring Kristen Connolly from Cabin in the Woods, speaks of a small town that buried what really happened when over 700 people perished during a tragedy that occurred years earlier. An investigative reporter tries to unlock the airtight sealing of the cover up, and in 24 hours, tries to unravel the mystery of the quotient with testimonials by people who were there, using eclectic and unorthodox methods as iPhone video recordings, Androids, and webcams to illustrate the events to put the pieces of the puzzle together.