Johnny Depp to Play Mexican Hero Pancho Villa?

Ay Dios mio.

Johnny Depp is jumping from the pirate seas of Disney make-believe to the sweltering Mexican desert. The actor is reportedly in talks to play Pancho Villa, a Mexican soldier and revolutionary in the early 20th century.

According to Variety, Depp is in "advanced negotiations" to star in the Spanish-language biopic, which has a lengthy full title of Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers.

Serbian director Emir Kusturica will be filming partly in Mexico, though because of Depp's busy schedule it likely won't start until 2011. Salma Hayek is also reportedly in talks to star as the female lead.

The film will be based on the novel "The Friends of Pancho Villa," which follows Villa and his amigos as they wreak havoc, and a little love, in turn-of-the-century Mexico.

So I get why Depp would be cast as Pancho Villa, what with all his star power, but couldn't they have gotten an actual Mexican actor, especially considering Villa is a national hero? Is Hollywood still not ready to feature Latino actors in prominent roles?