Johnny Depp’s tour guide on his ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ voyages is plotting the course for a fifth installment even before the fourth movie sails into theaters. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer says he has a screenplay in the works for a fifth ‘Pirates’ tale after May’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ comes out.
Based on the Disney theme-park ride, the original three ‘Pirates’ blockbusters ended up as a trilogy continuing the same key characters and story line. Bruckheimer says ‘On Stranger Tides’ and future ‘Pirates’ flicks will be stand-alone stories continuing the adventures of Depp’s woozy buccaneer Capt Jack Sparrow.
Directed by Rob Marshall (‘Chicago’), ‘On Stranger Tides’ sends Jack on a quest for the fountain of youth. Bruckheimer and Marshall showed off footage Tuesday at CinemaCon, a Las Vegas convention of theater owners. At test screenings of ‘On Stranger Tides,’ “the audience told us what they loved about it is that it was fresh, it was new, it was a whole new story,” Bruckheimer said in an interview alongside Marshall.
“So that will carry over into the next one, too, to give it something fresh and different. As long as the audience embraces this one, we’ll certainly try to make another one. It’s really up to Johnny. He loves the character.” Geoffrey Rush reprises his role as Jack’s rival, Barbossa, who has switched sides, no longer a pirate but a privateer sailing on the orders of the British monarchy.
Penelope Cruz co-stars as the fiery daughter of the pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane).
