The Fountain Will Test the Pirates On Stranger Tides

Fourth “Pirates of Caribbean” movie, “On Stranger Tides”, raises the qualm if it will live up to the wild triumph of the original film, or the dramatic action from the second and third installments. Unpromisingly based on a theme park ride, the first effort was a swashbuckling film which returned pirates to the big screen, also have been lauded as classic Disney tales, blending comedy, adventure, and the imagination. This is evident as "The Curse of the Black Pearl" earned over $305 million, "Dead Man’s Chest" earned over $423 million, and "At World’s End" earned over $309 million. While critically, the reaction is more akin to "The Matrix" trilogy - a modern classic of a first film, a deeply flawed disappointment of a sequel with occasional inspired moments, and an absolute mess of a third entry that makes little sense in itself, it’s no wonder if Disney is going ahead with another Pirates movie, considering that the franchise has earned them a tremendous amount of money. Even the three-time Academy Award nominee, Johnny Depp, who has conquered the chocolate factory, Neverland, Wonderland, Fleet Street, and also the water streets of Venice, agreed to returns to the rough seas of adventure as the flamboyant, irreverent swashbuckler Captain Jack Sparrow. This franchise isn't anything without Depp though, and the actor rumored earns around $55.5 million to play Sparrow again in this outing. But unfortunately, the trilogy captain Gore Verbinski has eventually left the ship and it’s Rob Marshall who’s now on-board to determine the direction of the new adventure. And as we knew it, Marshall is a director of glorious, gorgeous musicals, not gritty action-adventure movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. I have no clue how he's going to handle a project this epic and with this much salty water, but I hope he doesn't screw it up. And without the return of two other famous cast members, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, hopefully the new movie will be worth watching as well.
Depp himself promised that “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” won’t only feature Sparrow’s odd style and pirates quarrel but also “zombies, cutthroats, mermaids, and the vicious and vivacious Penélope Cruz.” The plot this time draws inspiration from the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, which is the same novel that inspired the LucasArts game The Secret of Monkey Island. The fantasy novel that won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1988 and was also nominated for The World Fantasy award, originally published in 1988, and the main character is also named Jack (Shandy) who tries to find the Fountain of Youth. The Fountain was depicted on a map that Jack Sparrow had in the final moments of the third film, so it being the focus of the story makes logical sense. Obviously however, quite a lot of the book will have to be changed to reflect the existing movie universe (including the major characters) , but Powers was amenable to the changes after getting a promise (joke) from Disney that Depp would have dinner with Powers and his wife and give them cameos in the film.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) crossing paths with the enigmatic Angelica (Penelope Cruz), which he’s not sure if it’s love—or if she’s a ruthless con artist who’s using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” the ship of the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn’t know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past. The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack’s longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid.

Aye. There should be a "Fact" in there somewhere.

# Producer Jerry Bruckheimer indicated that the tone will be much more akin to the first film - a stand-alone, less serious, comedic adventure take that isn't overly saddled with reams of exposition.

# Disney's Head of Production Oren Aviv said that this would "hopefully be the first of another trilogy." He also agreed that there is a lot of Captain Jack Sparrow's back story that we haven't seen yet without confirming or denying that we might see some of that in the fourth movie.

# To keep costs under control, the film's budget restricted to $200 million - $25 million less than "Dead Man's Chest" and $100 million less than "At World's End".

# Shooting ran from mid-June to mid-November with filming at one point in June taking place simultaneously in Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, the island of Palominos, and Los Angeles.

# It’s the first film in the series which features historical characters like Blackbeard, George II of Great Britain, Henry Pelham, John Carteret, and Ferdinand VI of Spain.

# Cruz pregnancy caused uproar of concern for the film’s production. It was reported that some of her scenes were “tweaked” to hide her growing belly, as well as making adjustments in her shooting schedule to conceal her change in shape.

# Cruz’s younger sister Mónica stood in for her during long-distance shots in order to hide the baby bump.

# Judi Dench pops in for a cameo as a noblewoman who gets to make out with Jack Sparrow.

# While filming in London in October 2010, Depp received a letter from a local 9-year old schoolgirl, telling him her classmates needed help to 'mutiny' against her teachers. He turned up with almost no warning at the school in full Sparrow outfit in support.

# Initial rumors stated the story had Jack Sparrow and Barbossa meeting up in the newly founded New Orleans, before they sail to find the Fountain of Youth together. A production spokesman debunked the rumors, saying that the synopsis is different and even though location scouts visited New Orleans.

Mark your calendar on:
May 18, 2011: Estonia, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, UK
May 19: Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Turkey
May 20: Bulgaria, Canada, Japan, Poland, Romania, USA
June 08: Armenia
June 09: Argentina

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDB – Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures