Pirates of the Caribbean ‘On Stranger Tides‘ wrapped production mid November with producer Jerry Bruckheimer tweeting folks to let them know that the first trailer would be out soon, confirmed as the 13th December.
The studios seem happy with what they’ve seen so far with Hitfix reporting that they’re putting the word out to cast and crew to set aside time in the near future so that they can shoot Pirates 5 & 6 back to back.
Whilst the double feature production worked to the detriment of the last films with rumblings of an incomplete script, the new ‘Pirates’ is based on a 1987 novel with characters changed to fit into the world of ‘Pirates’. Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa with new cast members Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane as Blackbeard on the search for the famed Fountain of Youth.
Check out The Teaser from July:
Rob Marshall of Chicago fame is taking over directing duties from Gore Verbinski who chose not to return and notably absent are Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. The fact that On Stranger Tides hasn’t been released and Disney is already locking in talent for sequels, it speaks volumes of the new films quality. Depp’s defining character has been very profitable for the studios, though at one stage his performance wasn’t well received. Johnny Depp spoke to Patti Smith of Vanity Fair on the ‘Stranger Tides’ set and he recalled that when he portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in the first movie, Disney execs were less than enthused:
Photograph by Annie Leibovitz. Styled by Jessica Diehl
They couldn’t stand him. They just couldn’t stand him… I think it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, ‘He’s ruining the movie’ … Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, What’s wrong with him? Is he, you know, like some kind of weird simpleton? Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay?… And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite… ‘But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?’ Which really made her nervous.
Depp’s also keen on working again with director Rob Marshall with his desire to remake The Thin Man playing the role of Nick who marries a young socialite and ‘settles into a life of drinking and occasional sleuthing‘. With Depp’s considerable influence in Hollywood, he can pick and choose his projects and directors and he believes Rob Marshall is the best person to bring the timeless story up to date:
The Thin Man has long been a favorite of mine and with Rob at the helm, I know we’re in great hands.
Studios are on board with the development of the project and are lining up writers to fashion a story based on the Dashiell Hammett novel and the 76-year old series of MGM films that starred William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Gore Verbinski is also set to work with Depp again next year on the film adaption of The Lone Ranger. They recently collaborated on the CG animated flick Rango. The Lone Ranger concept has been in development for years and Depp was always tentatively attached to play the sidekick Tonto. Now with the director recently locked in, the wheels can start moving forward. As for the role of The Lone Ranger, Depp has some ideas of his own about the casting:
There’s so many interesting possibilities out there, Brad [Pitt] would be great. [George] Clooney would be great. Don’t know who it’s going to be just yet.
Johnny’s maternal grandfather is Cherokee and whilst speaking with Entertainment Tonight he said that he wants to portray Native American Indians in a different light:
Native Americans in cinema, over the past however many decades, have been treated somewhat shabbily… This one has plans to rectify that.
The Lone Ranger could be shot before the proposed Pirates sequels are set to begin but nothing is confirmed at this point. Director Kathryn Bigelow also has her eye on Depp to appear in her new film Triple Frontier, scripted by the The Hurt Locker‘s Mark Boal. Tom Hanks is attached and its the story of the organized crime haven that exists in the border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Filming is scheduled to begin in February which should be fine scheduling wise since the start date of his next collaboration with Tim Burton was recently pushed back to April.
Depp’s interested in playing the role of vampire Barnabas Collins which is based on the 1960’s TV series Dark Shadows and was originally played by Jonathan Frid. Barnabas Collins was the central figure in what was considered a groundbreaking supernatural soap which Warner Bros have been trying to get off the ground for years. The Tim Burton vampire project was recently pushed back from January when Seth Grahame-Smith was brought into rewrite the script. Warner Bros purchased the film rights from the estate of Dan Curtis (the creator and producer) Depp will be producing through his Infinitum Nihil company along with Graham King’s GK Films and Dick Zanuck whose produced six of Burton’s productions to date.
Johnny Depp can be seen next with Angelina Jolie in their new movie The Tourist.
via: Vanity Fair Hitfix ETonline Deadline Dark Shadows blog sergio carellio
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