Monday, September 28, 2009

New Pirates of Caribbean Trilogy without Johnny Depp ?



Remember my article last week entitled "Could Dick Cook's lay off cost Disney 4 BILLION dollars ? ". I was explaining how devastating it could be for the WDC if Johnny Depp was finally saying "NO" to the Pirates of the Caribbean 4th episode (and so to the next trilogy)?

Well, i don't know if you've read my article but it seems that somebody at Burbank did read it as the Cinema Blend web site announces today that Disney "is preparing to replace Captain Jack with a entirely new character if Depp eventually refuses a fifth and sixth film" . Not to mention the fourth if johnny was changing his mind.
Why are they thinking to do such an insanity? Because of Johnny's comments after Dick Cook was fired. Exactly what i told you in the article.

Now, can you think about a POTC movie WITHOUT Jack Sparrow and Johnny's genius? Frankly, half of the success of the movies were due to the Jack Sparrow character and they did billion of dollars thanks to Johnny's talent. So who could be fool enough to try to replace him? Well, actually, they probably DON'T want to replace Johnny and it seems that they're ready to pay him a big amount of dollars for the fourth movie. But Disney execs have probably realised too that Cook's lay off could eventually cost them more than expected only because the actor who plays their most valuable character may be more faithful to his friend than greedy. I live in Paris but it's almost if i can hear the "Ooops, i think we've got a problem" coming out of Burbank when they've learned that Depp was "less enthusiastic" to come back for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean.

There is no way that Disney will accept to loose the POTC phenomenal franchise and there is at least one point we all ( Disney, you, me, everybody ) agree on: nobody else than Johnny Depp can play the Jack Sparrow character. If Johnny's not part of the movie, they have to create a new character. That's why they're thinking to introduce a new character, just in case...

Of course it's also a way to send a message to Johnny, something like "don't ever think that you are in strong position, we can replace your character". Which is in fact exactly what Disney execs probably think right now - that Johnny IS in fact in strong position - and of course they hate this.

No doubt that Johnny Depp will get the message. And you know what? Knowing Johnny's nature as i do, I think he's not going to like it. Not at all.


Edited 9/29: Cinema Blend just released a new article saying that they "spoke to a Disney representative today who had checked with the higher-ups in the company, who assure that Depp has not wavered one bit in his commitment to Pirates 4, despite some cryptic statements he made when Disney exec Dick Cook left the studio last week.
As for any movies following Stranger Tides, the Disney rep can't speak about those-- probably not because they don't want to do them, but because nothing has yet been greenlit, and it would be silly to publicly speculate otherwise."

Okay, so until now Depp is still part of POTC 4!

We'll see what will happen next, so.........to be continued

Picture: copyright Disney-Bruckheimer

11 comments:

Gilad said...

Why they need to do 6 movies out of the original movie??
The first one was good, the second was the same (also good) and the third one was also the same!
We got it, all the POTC movies, no need to duplicate it so many times with different names without reinventing it or contribute something new to the story...

Alain Littaye said...

Gilad, Burbank execs don't really care about the movies, they care about the billion of $ they did with them. You got it?

Bec said...

What's worse is that I heard a rumour that Robert Pattinson was going to be in it.

Just gouge my eyes out now.

Gilad said...

I understand it's all about the money, but it's way too much sequels

Alain Littaye said...

I agree Gilad, but they don't see it this way. It's a gold mine and they will try to get all the possible gold out of it. But i don't think they will do bad movies if they think that the scripts are no good.

Ashley said...

It would be a big mistake to even put out another Pirates movie without Johnny Depp. I see that being a huge flop at the box office. They already lost Keira Knightly, take out the most loved star and you don't even have a movie. There is only so far you can push any movie, lets see the next big thing!

Robert /Cologne said...

The film lives from Johnny Depps genius.The first film may have became a success without him but he managed to change it to the masterpiece it became.

john321 said...

You can destroy great value by eroding the scarcity of something.

Somehow, I hope Johnny just walks away from this whole messed up project... And somehow I hope someone in Burbank will call it a day... No more "new POTC trilogy".

Look at what Star Wars has become, once a great trilogy and a great leap forward in SciFi Fantasy has now been eroded to something you feel ashamed of being associated with. The same with Indiana Jones. Since Indy has met Star Wars in his last Episode, can we finally bury it in a cave, so deep that even Indy will not dare to try going after it?

Why do we love "Disneyland" so much? Because there are just a few of them (actually, just one), it's not like McDonald's. You cannot have a Disney equivalent of the Big Mac every single day of your life and you shouldn't have it. Reason: Quality needs to be appreciated to be quality.

So, instead of milking this goddamn franchise any further, please give us something new, mindbogglingly original, like the first POTC movie. Hit us hard with a hammer from the corner we least expect it, so our jaws drop to the floor so hard and fast we cannot catch them. That's the Disney we want and the Disney how it should be.

Rorschach said...

The first movie was very good, the other two were lame. Especially the third one was awful.
I don't really want to see any more POTC movies...
They just do it for the money and so does Depp(and I don't like him as an actor anyway)

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Rorschach. The first was the only 'real' pirate movie. The other two were more fantasy films with all those CGI characters. Why didn't they stay with the original 'pirate' setting? If Johhny wants to play his part once again, only then I can agree on another Pirates movie. If not, then please full the plug and focus on Prince of Persia. It has potential to become just as popular as Pirates. Make a trilogy of that film instead!

Anonymous said...

The word coming out is that the filmmakers plan to reduce the scope of the next movie to focus more on the pirates and less on the overblown fantasy elements. If it's true that the "On Stranger Tides" book by Tim Powers will be the basis for the fourth movie, then this next movie WILL be a 'real' pirate movie.