Johnny-Depp-and-Ralph-Steadman-in-For-No-Good-ReasonBest known for his work with Hunter S. Thompson, cartoonist Ralph Steadman is the subject of director Charlie Paul’s debut documentary, For No Good Reason.

The film premiered at TIFF last year, and was acquired by Sony Classics, which has been keeping it in their line-up for a little while now without much development. But now a new trailer has debuted over on IMDb, which suggests that it’s going to be on their release schedule for early 2014.

JOHNNY DEPP pays a call on his friend and hero RALPH STEADMAN and we take off on a high-spirited, lyrical, raging and soulful journey discovering the life and works of one of the most important radical British artists of modern times. Steadman rose to prominence in the early 70’s when his impassioned and stirring images gained recognition through popular cultural publications and press both in the UK and US for their bold comment on world politics and human rights infringements.

FOR NO GOOD REASON is a richly creative, visual feast of a film about the power and importance of art to achieve Steadman’s aim “I learnt to draw…to try to change the world”. Director Charlie Paul spent 15 years meticulously amassing the footage and creating the remarkable animations for the film to match the same anarchic energy, anger and free spirit of Steadman’s pictures. It is riot of stories and images that literally blast out of the screen as we take a trip through the wild and dark days of Steadman’s time and consignments with ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas’ writer Hunter S Thompson, the Rumble in the Jungle, gun fights with literary giant William S Burroughs and his fiercely heart-felt politics.

Through Depp’s lead in this intimate portrait, we are able to reach to the heart of what make this artist tick, his friendships and fallings out, his love for art and passion for civil liberties.

Paul spent more than a decade and a half assembling the material, with contributions also from Terry Gilliam,William S. Burroughs, Richard E. Grant, and more.

Steadman first collaborated with Thompson on the accompanying sketches for the latter’s article, The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved. From there, he went on to work with him on the renowned Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trailer in ’72, and The Curse of Lono.

In the years since, he’s worked on the artwork for Bruce Robinson’s Withnail & I and more recent editions of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and Lewis Carroll’s The Complete Alice, to name but a few.

For No Good Reason is currently playing in select US cinemas for a limited time only, and is then set to be released wide in Spring 2014.