Title: Paint It Jack
Author: Ian Nathan
Publication: US Empire
Issue: February 2011
ON A MONITOR IN A PASSAGE LEADINGTO A SOUND STAGE IN DEEPEST SHEPPERTON CAN BE SEEN CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW IN 3D. THE SCENE in question takes place in a palatial chamber-all Thomhill murals and giltwood armchairs – rapidly descending into pandemonium. Various puff pastries, pork pies and sides of mutton are catapulted ceiling-wards from a banquet table, musket-fire clogs the air with sooty smoke, and his royal plumpness King George II (Richard Griffiths) looks on aghast as Jack (Johnny Depp), the inevitable centre of the chaos, dementedly jogs left to right like Buster Keaton on hot coals, evading the grasp of the royal guard by a whisker, before tossing a priceless Rococo throne through an arched window and making his escape. Business as usual in the pleasurably frenetic universe of Pirates of the Caribbean. Only now in multiple dimensions.
It’s a tableau anchored by the figure of Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), atypically attired in naval togs and one large blue sock, whose smudged face powder cannot disguise a weary roll of the eyeballs. The sock? That’s for the FX guys to insert a recently acquired wooden leg. “Whatever else you say about Barbossa,” notes Rush in passing, “he’s a survivor.”
There are two weeks to go on the 106-day shoot for this new stand-alone adventure. A long haul that has taken in Hawaii (for the middle of the film), LA (interiors for Hawaii), Puerto Rico (the end of the film), and finally London (the beginning). And it’s all shot in genuine 3D, hence the intricate cameras with dual lenses and playback monitors with their cache of Ray-Bans.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Wasn’t there the feeling that the previous two sequels, however madcap Mr. Depp and handsome the vistas, were more Matrix-sequel gobbledegook than Indy on the high seas? The thought of a fourth slog felt a bit, well, rum.
“The thing with Pirates 4, I felt like we owed it to people … You know?” Johnny Depp takes a pull on a thin, black cigar while gathering his thoughts; his teeth might be up a golden molar. “Pirates 2 and 3 became quite … sub-plotty. The mathematics of it. All these people went to see them two or three times just to figure out what was happening. This one is a little closer in tone to the first: more character driven … more subject- driven … It has a freshness … Less mathematics.”
SO WHERE WERE WE? AFTER THE DIZZYING CONCLUSION OF EPISODES TWO AND THREE, CAPTAIN JACK WAS IN POSSESSION OF A MAP TO THE FOUNTAIN OF youth, but adrift in the drink in barely a dinghy. Then the announcement that there was, yes, to be a fourth in the series of lucrative comic fantasies (2,681,440,232 doubloons and counting). “We were already playing around with another story on three,” smiles Jerry Bruckheimer, “and when Ted and Terry found the book, we were really inspired.” “Ted and Terry” are Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the writing duo who have fathered the calamities of Captain Jack thus far; “the book” is Tim Powers’ 1988 novel On Stranger Tides, a straight pirate adventure that could happily relax into a Captain Jack yam.
“So much of it derives from the novel,” says Rossio: “Blackbeard, Angelica, the fountain of youth. Stylistically, we’ve integrated the book into our universe with Captain Jack and Barbossa.”
But with Gore Verbinski unable to face another voyage, they were down a major guiding light. Bruckheimer diplomatically reports the director was simply busy with other projects (animated Depp-as-gecko flick Rango, and the since-stalled video-game adaptation Bioshock). With Depp still agreeable, Disney was keen to keep the sequel moving, and Chicago director Rob Marshall was hired. A clever move – a master of screen musicals is ideal for a Pirates movie, with its own peculiar dance moves.
“He’s so sensitive to what is going on in the frame,” approves Depp of his new director. “If he senses bullshit, he’ll call a person on it. Politely, of course. He can feel the over-acting.” Even amid the dementia of Pirates, there are subtle cadences, natural rhythms – call it arrggghht. “He’s brought this incredible timing,” continues the star. “Especially because of his background – you can be a millisecond out and he calls you on it.” Today, on set, it’s Marshall’s birthday. In a secret alcove, unavailable to Empire, champagne is served without anyone needing to fall over. Ten minutes later they are back to work.
Even after Marshall’s appointment, trouble loomed when Disney studio chairman Dick Cook stepped down. Given Cook had championed the then high-risk original, Depp was less than impressed. “There’s a fissure, a crack in my enthusiasm at the moment,” he reported on hearing the news. “It was all born in that office.” Pirates 4 looked on the rocks, but after a “wonderful meeting”, Marshall convinced Depp to keep the faith. After all, no Captain Jack, no Pirates: “It would be a pirate movie,” senses Rossio, “but not Pirates Of The Caribbean.”
On set to facilitate improv and on-the-spot alterations, the writer has been impressed with the new director’s fastidiousness. “Rob works as he does in theatre. He spent a lot of time refining the screenplay prior to production. And Johnny has a huge influence on the script: he’s invented characters, invented storylines, jokes … ”
Rossio had always pictured a scene of Jack dancing on deck. “It would be romantic and odd, just the image of Jack Sparrow being seductive. Starlight, all of that.” And a new leading lady, in shapely Penelope Cruz as the shady Angelica, presented a perfect opportunity. “Johnny added this idea to cut in on himself,” laughs the writer. “He’s in the middle of this dance and swings off on a rope then reappears: ‘May I cut in?”
YOU’LL HAVE GATHERED SHIPMATES HAVE BEEN JETTISONED BETWEEN THREE AND FOUR. ORLANDO BLOOM AND KEIRA KNIGHTLEY – Will and Elizabeth – are no longer required, their storylines concluded (pressed on the chance of cameos, Rossio shakes his head). But there is an enticing range of new personnel. In arguably the Will and Elizabeth mould are newcomers Sam Claflin as pacifist missionary Philip, and Spanish- born French model-turned-actress Astrid Berges- Frisbey as mermaid Syrena. (How does she manage both water and land? “Magic!” she exclaims. “CGI!’)
The new villain of the piece is Captain Blackbeard, a liberal take on history’s Edward Teach, scourge of the American colonies. Played by lan McShane dolled up in black leathers and with a beard that could thatch a cottage, he’s a “biker pirate” who takes charge of the Queen Anne’s Revenge (chief motif: skulls). “He’s a force, man,” grooves Depp. “An incredible force.
A legend.” This is most likely a reference to McShane’s AI Swearengen, the Mephistopheles of Deadwood, rather than antique-market scallywag Lovejoy, but with Depp, who knows?
So: Penelope. On StrangerTides’ Latina Exocet. Again, Marshall, who directed her in Nine, was key to persuading the Spanish actress to join up: “She liked the role, but he was the sealer,” says Bruckheimer. At her mention Depp pulls an impish grin from ear to gold-ringed ear.
“We did a film called Blow together; I have to be careful not say, ‘We did blow together,”’ he smirks, channelling Keef. “She’s a funny girl. A firecracker. She brings a lot to the table.” Angelica and Jack have a past, “a residue”, as Depp puts it. “That sounds bad doesn’t it? There’s a chemistry there. They’re like a divorced couple who hate each other and at the same time love one another. It’s a very strange relationship. A lot of fun … ” He grins, recalling something we have yet to see: “We’ve upped the stakes in terms of absurdity.”
Cruz, she reveals, is Blackbeard’s daughter and not to be trusted. But it’s a pirate movie. No-one is to be trusted. More serious for the production, although wonderful for Cruz, was the news midway through filming that she was pregnant (padre: Javier Bardem). “You won’t be able to tell,” smiles Bruckheimer. “We have a great stunt double. Doesn’t change her abilities, she’s just got bigger… More glow.”
SOMEWHERE IN ON STRANGER TIDES IS A BED WITH A SKELETON TIED TO IT. FOR THE EAGLE-EYED DISNEYLAND PATRON, IT’S A FURTHER REFERENCE TO THAT clunky old ride where this all began. A gesture that events, in four, are bucking current sequels and getting lighter, more fun. As the film begins, Jack, not for the first time, is in custody, hauled before the king of England no less, in old London town (exteriors: Greenwich’s Old Royal Naval College), who has gotten wind he has a map to the fountain of youth.
Cue today’s rollicking escape. Then a chase involving 20 carriages, 50 horses and a coal truck exploding in an exquisite Thames-side street set (Dickens does Tortuga). Angelica will ‘rescue’ the ever-wriggling Jack, they’ll join in a swordfight amid exploding beer barrels in the storeroom of the Captain’s Daughter Tavern (notably bigger than the tavern), and end up in the river (actually a 91F underwater stage at Shepperton).
That, good people, is just the beginning. In essence, the film is a race to the fabled fountain deep in a mysterious jungle. Dirty tricks abound. As do mermaids, zombies, Keith Richards and Kevin McNally’s less-than-reliable first mate, Gibbs. Not to forget Jack’s beloved The Black Pearl. “We get a sliver or two of Jack’s story,” adds Depp. “How he first met Angelica.” But as the actor insists, Jack remains the series’ constant, he’s not going to evolve. “He’s at his max,’ he laughs.
Here is the true secret of Pirates Of The Caribbean: we’re not returning for the new stuff, but the old. Jack must always be Jack. “Jack Sparrow is the counter-punch character,” says Rossio. “In the first three movies Elizabeth Swann is our protagonist; it’s her story, hers and Will Turner’s. Jack is the supporting character in a sense, he influences people around him.” The punchline to their set-up.
You might imagine that infuriates the ever-adventurous Depp, an actor who has always tottered away from the straight-and-narrow. But no: “It is satisfying,” he says of the rock in his professional life. “I’ve known people like Hunter Thompson who was who he was his whole life. He was a genius as well. It’s fun knowing Jack won’t change. Weirdly, there’s safety in that: he has a dumb side, a clever side, a sort of weird … reptile.”
That’s why the door is always open for Captain Jack. Maybe not in knotted trilogies, but certainly stand-alone missions: the unreliable James Bond of the Spanish Main. However gruelling – and all that slapstick takes its toll (“We certainly hammer it”) – Pirate films are a joy to make. “They are the same camera crew, same grip department, a family. The process feels intimate,” extols Depp.
“Yes, there are large set-pieces, big stunts, but when you are shooting it feels like … home.”
