
Well, the publicity machine for the highly anticipated fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie is already in town, with a new trailer in front of all Winter film releases. Things looked a little shaky for the fourth movie, ‘On Stranger Tides’, and it will likely repeat the lucrative takings of the original and very popular movie trilogy. A happier accompaniment to Barbados holidays is difficult to imagine.
So it hasn’t been entirely plain sailing for this big budget instalment, and it remains to be seen how the film will measure up now that it has shed some key figures. On set, we’ve seen the loss of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly who provided the core of the story round which the zany antics of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow flitted around. The biggest obstacle to the film’s success was arguably veteran Disney Chairman Dick Cook, supposedly ousted by CEO Bob Iger. Without Cook’s influence in the early years, there would have been no Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. As anyone who has seen Pirates will tell you, Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow seems a lot like the only interpretation that was ever possible. With Cook gone, Depp claimed there ‘was a crack in [his] enthusiasm’. Thankfully for everyone, he decided to stay on, so it’s Antigua holidays for Jack Sparrow all over again.
‘On Stranger Tides’ came to light when the Disney studio purchased the rights to the 80s fantasy novel of the same name. In the original ‘On Stranger Tides’, Jack Shandy is duped by a British professor into joining a crew to find the Fountain of Youth. The real-life pirate figure, Blackbeard, is also involved in the intrigue. Pirates of the Caribbean Four is inevitably only a loose adaptation of the book, but most of the key players and location are retained. Whilst Jack Shandy is now Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard is the villain, the Fountain of Youth is the mythical places both sides are seeking. No detours on Vietnam holidays or three headed monkeys in this film.
Film series rarely see their fourth installment, and the vitality of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is impressive: so too has been the turn around for this installment, considering it has only been four years since the last one. Let’s hope it’s more ‘Thunderball’ than ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’.
Tags: film, Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean, Upcoming Releases