Will Rob Marshall Direct Pirates 4?
Gore Verbinski stepped out of the captain’s cabin for Disney’s fourthPirates of the Cariebbeanfilm, but Variety’sBFDealMemoblog suggests the studio may have a new helmer inRob Marshall. The blog reports that “sources say unless things break down at the last moment, Marshall will be steering the pirate vehicle’s next installment.” Marshall has three big features under his belt:Chicago,Memoirs of a GeishaandNine, to be released later this year. Is he the man to steer the Black Pearl into safe harbor?
That’s a rhetorical question, really, because the series is almost a high-profile blank slate right now. With the storyline of the original trilogy concluded, Marshall and screenwritersTed ElliottandTerry Rossiowould be free to do whatever they like with the series.Johnny Deppis obviously returning as Jack Sparrow, andGeoffrey Rushhas said he would return as Barbossa; one proposed storyline has Sparrow and Barbossa hitting New Orleans and then searching for the Fountain of Youth. And last weekend at Comic Con, producer Jerry Bruckheimer said that he’d like to be filming by April or May of next year.
The thirdPiratesfilm vies in my eyes withSpider-Man 3as the worst summer film of ‘07, but I’m more optimistic this time. For one, a new director could freshen things up. And, much more important, there might be a script written before filming begins. You know, like, a finished one.Pirates 2and3were written on the run to varying degrees. That’s part of the reason Gore Verbinski wasn’t interested in doing another one, and who can blame him? Creating a film on the scale of the lastPirateshas to be an intolerable strain, and when there’s a constantly evolving script to base it on? I’d rather fight the Kraken, thanks.
Variety reports that Disney has already started to cast some of the new characters that’ll appear in this installment, so if Marshall’s deal goes through we should hear many more details about the film quite soon.
