After an impressive start to a franchise that managed to once again makes pirates the epitome of cool, the Pirates of the Caribbean series had two increasingly bad sequels that despite both entering the top ten highest grossing movies of all time (the second movie actually held the title of third highest grossing film ever made, until Avatar came along and knocked it down to fourth place) weren’t all that well received, and left many fans of the original feeling let down; something that producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun) hopes to change with the next film in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Many people believed that the third outing would have been the pirates last, and indeed it was for director Gore Verbinski, as On Stranger Tides will be the first Pirates of the Caribbean he hasn’t directed, and the first one in the franchise to be directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago), as well as the first one which is going to be released in 3D.
The plot is being drawn from the Tim Powers book On Stranger tides, and follows on from that discussed in previous installments; involving the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow (who will once again be played by Johnny Depp) searching for the Fountain of Youth, after crossing paths with a woman from his past (who’s being played by Penelope Cruz, Nine) who forces him aboard the ship of the ruthless pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane, Deadwood).
Pirates 4 is due to be released on May 20th 2011 (exactly two weeks after the theatrical release of Marvel Studios’ Thor), and should be expected to be another massive summer blockbuster. But for fans of Ol’ Cap’n Jack that can’t wait until then, the teaser video that was shown at this year’s Comic-Con can be seen below.
