Remember when "Pirates Of The Caribbean" was just a breezy, two-hour blockbuster that didn’t cost too much money? Oh wait, that was never really the case. From the two-hour plus runtime of the first film, ‘The Curse Of The Black Pearl,’ eventually bested by the staggering 168 minute slog of ‘At World’s End,’ to a budget that soared to nearly $400 million with ‘On Stranger Tides,’ nothing has ever been small about this franchise. With cameras now rolling on the fifth installment "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" over two years before it’s slated to hit theaters, we can only assume this one will be another monster.
After several years of development — the picture was originally going to arrive this summer — production has begun on location in Australia on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales,’ with Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning (“Kon-Tiki”) directing. But what’s with the long wait until 2017? Is Disney hedging their bets? Do they need an extra amount of time for post-production because the film is so epic? Are they just holding out a far off date in case another tentpole doesn’t come through and they can adjust ‘Pirates 5’ accordingly? Who knows.
Anyway, Javier Bardem, Kaya Scodelario, Brenton Thwaites, and Golshifteh Farahani are joining Johnny Depp‘s Jack Sparrow in his latest swashbuckling adventure, with Geoffrey Rush, Kevin R. McNally, and Stephen Graham reprising their roles from previous entries (so much for those Orlando Bloom rumors). The official plot sounds typically involved:
Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.
So, in case it wasn’t clear, the latest movie will involve ghost pirates and the mythology of Poseidon because, why not? See you in cinemas on July 7, 2017.
