Jan
21
2011
by
Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Publication: Entertainment Weekly
Issue: January 2011
DOES ANYONE LOVE the egomaniacal pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow much as, well, the egomaniacal pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow? Maybe not. But on person he comes close is Johnny Depp, who’s now played that seafaring scalawag in four Pirates of the Caribbean movies, including On Stranger Tides (out May 20). “I’m never tired of the character,” he says. “I don’t look forward to the day when I have to say good bye to him.”
Captain Jack’s latest adventure was born during the back-to-back productions of the franchise’s second and third films, 2006’s Dead Man’s Chest and 2007’s At World’s End. Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio persuaded series superproducer Jerry Bruckheimer to option Tim Powers’ On Stranger Tides, a 1987 novel that featured both the dreaded pirate Blackbeard and the fountain of youth. Once the rights were secured, Elliott and Rossio set the stage for the new installment by writing a concluding scene for At World’s End in which Sparrow is seen heading off in search of the fountain in question.
Given the combined $2 billion worldwide gross of Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, Disney was happy to bankroll a fourth excursion.
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