New Pirates Of The Caribbean is a priority for Disney, with or without Johnny Depp
Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president is coy about whether Johnny Depp has a future with the Pirates franchise
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Disney, the company once known for some of the most innovative and imaginative storytelling in the entertainment industry, is now primarily in the business of reheating old intellectual property. Hot off the heels of The Little Mermaid live-action remake, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president Sean Bailey discussed his future projects with The New York Times, a list that includes a lot of familiar names: Haunted Mansion, Moana, Hercules, Lilo And Stitch, Hocus Pocus 3, Mufasa: The Lion King, and who could forget, Pirates Of The Caribbean.
The latter—possibly a sixth installment in the series, possibly a hard reset, who can say—is apparently a “priority” for the studio. “We think we have a really good, exciting story that honors the films that have come before but also has something new to say,” Bailey tells the Times. But can Pirates escape the long shadow of its biggest star, Johnny Depp? Bailey is “Noncommittal at this point” about bringing the embattled actor back as Captain Jack Sparrow.
It’s not exactly a “welcome back,” but it’s not a rejection, either. Depp was booted from the semi-U.K.-based Fantastic Beasts franchise after the English court deemed abuse accusations against him substantially true. But following that ruling, he came out largely victorious over ex-wife Amber Heard in a similar case in the U.S. Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer said last year that “I would love to have him in the movie. He’s a friend, a terrific actor, and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do.”
His personal life certainly seemed to creep into the production of Pirates 5, where Depp was rumored to be frequently inebriated and chronically tardy to set, “which often left hundreds of extras waiting for hours at a time,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “There were certainly days when our plans were challenged,” Bailey commented to the outlet at the time. “But no one should underestimate Johnny’s passion and commitment to this character and franchise.”
Basically, it seems like Bailey is staying diplomatic about Depp. Meanwhile, the Pirates reboot (if it can be described as such) is moving forward with a story from Ted Elliott and The Last Of Us’ Craig Mazin and a “younger cast,” per Bruckheimer. (A separate Margot Robbie Pirates seems to be up in the air.) Whether that young cast will be offset by an aging, rum-soaked rapscallion remains to be seen.
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His personal life certainly seemed to creep into the production of Pirates 5, where Depp was rumored to be frequently inebriated and chronically tardy to set…You mere mortals simply don’t understand method acting.
Ah another sequel, why not just reboot it while you are at it. Disney, has nearly given up on new content, I understand why (money and risk) but it is sad that future Disney fans do not have the joy of growing up with new content.
well i mean, this was a movie based on an amusement park ride to begin with.
Eh…other than the name and a couple of visual nods, it has absolutely nothing to do with the theme park ride. Pretty far cry from straight up redoing one of your original films in a different visual style.
haha, and i’m sure fans of the rich world-building of the 10 minute ride were devastated. but that’s how things change: 20 years ago the movie was considered the height of creative bankruptcy because it was based on a theme park ride, but it was a big hit (and a good movie) so it didn’t matter. now it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the live action copy/paste jobs we get. i wonder what we’ll be complaining about in 20 years.
I’ve got a feeling in 20 years we’ll still be complaining about Pirates of the Caribbean and live-action remakes.Even odds between bemoaning the continuing MCU, or sorely missing the MCU and bemoaning whatever follows it.
‘i miss when the mcu had actors and writers’
Yes, reboot it…but as an animated film! So innovative!
exactly so you only need a jonny depp sound alike.
A new PotC movie being a “ priority” for Disney shows about how they’re doing regarding new, exciting content.
i really think gore verbinski was the special sauce to this franchise, not depp.that being said, they will bring depp back, the press cycle will be awful and he will get paid more money than anyone has ever been paid for a movie before.
All the Pirates movies post-Verbinski haven’t been great, but it’s also worth noting that Verbinski did that awful Lone Range movie after Pirates.
exactly!!! Depp is rumored to be in beetlejuice 2 and if that is the case …the movie is going to make millions and if Depp is in pirates 6 (he probably will be) we are looking at a guaranteed over billion dollar boxoffice and from then…he is going to make more money than he had before and we are going to witness the biggest comeback in hollywood history since robert downey jr (it was reported that downey wants johnny in sherlock holmes 3)….
“He’s a friend, a terrific actor, and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do.”Seems like Bruckheimer might need to reconsider whether or not friendship counts as part of your personal life…
“New Pirates Of The Caribbean is a priority for Disney, with or without Johnny Depp”why thoEvery day that goes by where a studio (any studio!) doesn’t try to make that 21 Jump Street / Men in Black crossover is another day wasted.
Burn
Watching this movie will not be a “priority” for me.
I’ve liked all the PotC films, including the last, and I like Jack Sparrow. That said, the last film’s story and cliffhanger makes me think if it WERE going to be a continuation, virtually every other character but Sparrow and Barbossa would be the smarter choice to carry it.
Most startling piece of information in this article is they made FIVE Pirates of the Caribbean movies(?!)
It makes me realize that I am truly unsure how many of them I have seen. Pretty sure I saw the first two. Not sure about the third. Doubt I saw four or five. But I wouldn’t swear to any of that in open court. Which one was Keith Richards in? I’m (almost) sure I saw that one. There was one with a swordfight on a giant hamster wheel or something…they all blend together after a while.
It was a water wheel, IIRC, and that was during the wild climax of the second movie (which, IMHO, was about the only time the second one measured up to the first). Keith Richards played a small but key role in the third film, which is probably the other one you saw; he also had basically a cameo in the fourth film.
They should just bring Richards back for the next one. And all the ones after that.
The third movie is the best in the series. I will die on this hill.
Maybe, but can we all agree that the films that followed were terrible?
I’m not sure. Personally I think only the first one was a legit good movie. Was a steep fall after that
Absolutely. As much as I think there is fun stuff in 2 and 3, something about the first one just hit perfectly. I think it was just the general sense that even though these characters were awesome, anything could happen to them at any moment. The only comparable time I felt that was probably in The Mummy, another great first film followed by a bunch of disappointing ones.
True story: my mother in law thinks she is in a relationship with Johnny Depp, thanks to one of the countless Facebook scammers. She’s so narcissistic that she actually believes he is courting her. My wife explained the scammers, but she thinks she can tell the difference. She is new to Facebook this year, naturally. It’s odd to see this scam unfolding in real time. She is truly an abhorrent woman(highly abusive to her children), and a bit delusional (she claims to have had an affair with Ronald Reagan). I still don’t want her to be taken by this scammer, though. That would make the chances of her having to live with us a bit higher.
Before spending too much time scolding Disney for recycling content, keep in mind their early (non-short) successes were versions of classic stories or works in the public domain. People may associate Cinderella, Pinocchio, Winnie the Pooh, and even the Little Mermaid with Disney, but those stories already existed long before they were animated Disney movies.
Without, please.
I am a Pirates of the Caribbean fan even though I recognize that they are mostly not good movies. They are guilty pleasures for me.
Pretending the issues in Depp’s personal life don’t exist, the character is tired anyway. They need a new leading person. If I were to nominate anyone, I’d nominate Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, or (also from The Good Place), Manny Jacinto.
His personal life certainly seemed to creep into the production of Pirates 5,
where Depp was rumored to be frequently inebriated and chronically
tardy to set, “which often left hundreds of extras waiting for hours at a
time,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“There were certainly days when our plans were challenged,” Bailey
commented to the outlet at the time. “But no one should underestimate
Johnny’s passion and commitment to this character and franchise.”Even Disney’s own pirates hagiography, sold in their parks, says that Depp basically cost Pirates 5 millions of dollars by being too drunk to work much of the time.Independent of everything with Heard, he’s an insurance and cost overruns liability.
It also made Disney close to $5 BillionRisk vs Reward you take Depp everytime.Dont forget Robert Downey jr. was also uninsurable.
pirates 5 did not make 5 billion dollars and robert downey jr also stopped doing drugs.
I remember all of the women going nuts over Jack Sparrow. I dunno. Just imagine what he must smell like. It’s the same with Daryl Dixon. If you saw those characters walking down your street, you’d call the cops.
They romanticize this sorta of bad boy as having a musky manly smell but realistically Captain Jack smells like stale booze, vomit and piss……on a good day.
They did? I mean, I believe you but I can’t think of a nastier-looking leading man. Actually, he was even more gross in Secret Window. I was embarrassed for John Tuturro.
Can they recast Captain Jack with Ezra Miller?
Depp made the movies enjoyable, I don’t care what happens in their personal lives because they are personal. They should not dictate whether actors should be removed just because of something that happened off-set away from any productions in their relationships or personal lives, if so then most actors should be removed from this standpoint.
Disney, the company once known for some of the most innovative and
imaginative storytelling in the entertainment industry, is now primarily
in the business of reheating old intellectual property.
Hasn’t this always been a thing for disney?