It is said that John Wilmot, the son of Henry, Earl of Rochester, discovered his taste for debauchery at the age of 12, while away from home studying in Oxfordshire.

The Libertine, a film starring Johnny Depp as Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester, comes soon to theatres after an agonizingly long wait by fans of the actor and historians eager to see this extraordinary tale brought to life. By all accounts, Wilmot the real-life person led a life as colorful and dramatic as any ever told of in works of fiction. Any one of his many adventures or infamous exploits could fill the pages of a book or inspire a film.

By 14, he had earned his Master's degree, and set out to learn the cultured ways of France and Italy by touring the Continent, as was the custom for young British Noblemen in 17th Century England upon graduation.

His return to London brought him to the Royal Court at the time of the Restoration, a time when Puritanism was losing its dominant influence under the monarchy of Charles the Second, a patron of the arts, and also a notorious womanizer. Young Wilmot's gifted talents for poetry and parody combined with his wicked charm made him an immediate favorite among the King's courtiers.

He served with courage and distinction in the Royal Navy in combat at sea against the Dutch fleet for which he returned to London as a hero. Soon after, the first of many outrageous affronts to Royal Society reversed his fortunes.

Wilmot was seized and imprisoned in the Tower for the attempted abduction of Elizabeth Malet, an heiress and a woman of renown. Two years later, Wilmot and Malet were married, her previous kidnapping by the young Earl notwithstanding.

The Royal Court welcomed back the indomitable nobleman, and for over a decade, he added to his reputation as a raconteur, a drinker, and a writer of scandalous prose and pornography. His play, entitled Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery, earned him a prosecution for obscenity, after which copies of the offending work were banned and burned.

The Second Earl of Rochester was a natural actor, and passionately involved himself in all aspects of theatre, as a performer, a playwrite and patron of the arts. His mistress Elizabeth Barry became the most honored actress of her time.

After 15 years of indulgent revelry in London, a shamelessly insulting satire of the King resulted in Wilmot's banishment from the Court, but the ever-licentious and creative nobleman merely created a new personna in exile, a so-called "Doctor Bendo," whose practice offered cures for infertility that included repeated sessions of rapacious sex.

At the age of 33, the life of Earl John Wilmot came to an end, presumably from an advanced case of syphilis. Despite the often graphic nature of much of his writing (his Sodom is considered the first known work of pornography in print) John Wilmot was admired for his wit and talents by the likes of Voltaire, Alfred Tennyson and Daniel Defoe.

The Libertine is scheduled for a limited release in Los Angeles and New York on the 25th of November and for a wide U.S. release on January 13, 2006.
Samantha Morton co-stars as Elizabeth Barry, John Malkovich is King Charles II, and Rosamund Pike appears as Elizabeth Malet.

The Libertine is expected to be rated NC-17.