The Margot Robbie Pirates Of The Caribbean dream is not completely dead
Jerry Bruckheimer says Margot Robbie's Pirates Of The Caribbean movie is one of two still in development
Aux News Pirates of the Caribbean
Last year, Disney described Pirates Of The Caribbean as a “priority,” but the franchise has been in development hell basically since the last soft-reboot, Dead Men Tell No Tales, in 2017. In 2020, it was announced Margot Robbie was developing a female-forward Pirates with her Birds Of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson. By 2022, she figured Disney didn’t want to make it anymore. But “These things take time,” franchise producer and Hollywood powerhouse Jerry Bruckheimer says in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. According to him, Robbie’s version still has a fighting chance.
Currently, there are “two different” movies in development that are set in the POCCU (Pirates Of The Caribbean Cinematic Universe). One is a full franchise reboot written by Jeff Nathanson (Young Woman And The Sea) and one is the Robbie/Hodson project. “We hope to get ‘em both made, and I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too,” Bruckheimer teases. (In fairness, he was saying the Robbie/Hodson version was still alive in 2022, shortly after Robbie assumed it was dead.)
The buried lede here is that the actual dead Pirates project is Craig Mazin’s. Mazin was teasing his version as recently as September 2023, saying Disney bought his and co-writer Ted Elliot’s script even though it was “too weird.” Maybe the weirdness ultimately bumped Mazin and Elliot from the docket, or maybe it was Mazin’s The Last Of Us schedule that prevented him from going all-in on Pirates. Whatever the case, his doesn’t seem to be one of the two POCCU projects in development right now.
Instead, it’s Nathanson’s script, which has a “great, great third act” (and which Bruckhemier wishes he could bring Johnny Depp back for, but alas, it’s a reboot and apparently not up to him), and the Robbie/Hodson version. Also, there’s going to be a new National Treasure movie, but that’s a different story. For now, let’s see whether any of these POCCU pictures ever actually make it onto screen…
26 Comments
Stop trying to make POCCU happen. (By which I mean both the concept and the acronym.)
Whenever POCCU isn’t on screen the audience should be asking “Where’s POCCU?”
POCCU sounds like a Japanese mascot character.
Multiple PotU movies sounds fine to me. The franchise isn’t called “The Adventure of Captain Jack Sparrow.” There’s lots of stories to be told in the setting.
It would be miraculous if they looked at Star Wars insistence on including a Skywalker in every story and said “let’s not do that with Jack Sparrow and PotC”. But, they won’t. They won’t be able to escape the cold comfort of Jack Sparrow as the main draw because it is familiar and execs would rather fail with a known quantity than take a shot on an unknown one.Personally, I would be in for some more good PotC movies. The first one was a fun, sorta low-fantasy adventure that I enjoyed before things got pretty convoluted. Jack Sparrow does not need to be a part of that.
I don’t think anyone will care about Jack Sparrow if Robbie shows up in a sexy pirate outfit (there might be corsets). Depp will, hopefully, become a faint, sour-smelling memory.
Oh man, that reminds me: I saw The Fall Guy yesterday and there’s a line where someone walks into a room that’s been trashed and says “Jeez, were Johnny and Amber in here?”
Oh that’s bad.
But it comes with a free Frogurt!
That’s good!
I don’t understand the frogurt reference.
Are you even allowed on the AV Club if you don’t get every single Simpsons reference?!
Thanks. I think I stopped watching about 15 years ago, along with a good deal of tv. I minored in film studies for all of my college degrees, taught a bit of it at the college level and have published some pieces, so maybe my membership is based on that paltry resume.
I thought everything was in The Simpsons so, of course, frogurt too.
Will she be fangin’ durries on screen?
Especially since the inspiration for the movies was a damn theme park ride with no named characters. That’s a lot of pirates to choose from.
You know who they need to replace Sparrow with? A real pirate:
Would make for a lower makeup budget.
I’d much rather see her do something new than try to air out something with Depp’s stink all over it.
I’m in general all in favor of new worlds rather than just prolonging existing franchises, but I can’t fault Robbie if she wants to play in this sandbox because she thinks it’d be fun and she’d be able to tell a good story.
I am all for Margot. She was so good at physical comedy in Barbie, she could play a pirate.(I’m not going to bring up historical accuracy I promise, its a franchise with ghost pirates demons sea monsters and Octopus men. Making an Anne Bonny style character is a drop in the ocean.)
You. Me. We get that Crazy Bill Dampier movie petition going.Working title: A Hindrance To My Greater Designs.
Hell yeah now we’re talking.
“Mr. Dampier! It’s the Madre De Nuestra Salvador! And by God, she’s fairly plump with silver! She’s riding low enough to swamp her gun ports- Shall I rig for- Mr. Dampier? Sir?” “You seein’ this fuckin’ flower, Jenkins? Look at the petals. Crazy shit, man.”
I hope that Depp never plays a pirate again, Robbie’s movie gets made, and Amber Heard has a cameo as a captain of her own ship.
She should forget about Pirates of the Caribbean and start her own franchise as Anne Bonny
Why does every terminally-online digital artist make their subjects raving alcoholics?