Though would-be series starter The Lone Ranger flopped at the box office this past summer, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer will always have Pirates of the Caribbean to fall back on. The swashbuckling franchise currently holds the title of sixth highest-grossing series of all time, and 2011’s On Stranger Tides scored over $1 billion without the help of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Disney and Bruckheimer are working fast to pull together a fifth installment.
Currently subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, the film has already been slated for the summer of 2016. Now, we have news from The Daily Mail that two well-respected actors are considering major roles in the sequel. Oscar winner Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and BAFTA nominee Rebecca Hall (The Awakening) have both been approached to play key characters in Dead Men Tell No Tales, which will find Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow racing against the feared Captain Brand (the role Waltz is circling) for a powerful object called The Trident. Brand already holds a grudge against Jack for turning his brother Eric to piracy, which eventually cost him his life.
Bleeding Cool has poured a little cold water on The Daily News’s story, saying:
The Waltz part is nothing like a done deal. Indeed, I’d call their story hearsay.
According to the site, Waltz has shown interest in the role, and that’s about it so far. However, plot details and the part about Hall are a little more concrete.
Hall is wanted to play Carina Smyth, Jack’s love interest this time around. A capable astronomer thought to be a witch because of her considerable scientific knowledge, Carina is also the daughter of series star Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). The grizzled captain would likely be none too happy about Jack wooing his daughter, but he’s going to be pretty busy with his own subplot in the film. Barbossa will set sail with the ghost of a British military recruit on a mission of revenge (from which the film gets its subtitle). Exotic witches will also factor into the plot, as will Jack’s erstwhile father, Captain Teague (Keith Richards).
Dead Men Tell No Tales boasts a screenplay from Jeff Nathanson (Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3). Kon-Tiki directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg will be at the helm for this installment, unconventional choices of which I whole-heartedly approve. Kon-Tiki was an engrossing high-seas yarn and one of the best films of 2012, so the duo boarding Pirates of the Caribbean makes a lot of sense. Hopefully this one will have a better story than On Stranger Tides, which our reviewer gave two-and-a-half-stars, concluding:
Casting all hope aside, this is unlikely to be the last Pirates film, but it should be.
Should Disney weigh this franchise down with stones and sink it to the bottom of the sea, or are you excited to see the further adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow? Sound off in the comments section.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will storm the box office in the summer of 2016.
