It looks like we have not seen the last of Captain Jack Sparrow or the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series just yet. The iconic character and franchise that launched over a decade ago is eyeing to produce its fifth installment that is due in theaters on July 7, 2017.
The Johnny Depp series that spawned three sequels and an Academy Award nomination for the actor has made close to $4 billion at the worldwide box office. The most recent chapter in the series, "On Stranger Tides," which co-starred Penelope Cruz, grossed more than $1 billion globally. This vote of confidence from fans shows that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" brand is nowhere near slowing down.
According to Coming Soon, the fifth film from Walt Disney Pictures is rumored to have the subtitle "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and sits solely in the cushy July 7 spot of 2017 with no competition scheduled to take on the powerhouse franchise. The previous week has "Despicable Me 3" being released and the week after has "The Fantastic Four 2" hitting theaters. This leaves the "Pirates" property to only have one week to open huge. The film will again be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, with direction by Kon-Tiki's Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. Handling the writing duties is "Catch Me If You Can" and "The Terminal" scribe Jeff Nathanson.
Geoffrey Rush will reprise his role as Captain Barbossa in the sequel, while it is rumored that double Oscar winner Christoph Waltz will be on board for a new role. Jerry Bruckheimer is coming off the huge debacle that was "The Lone Ranger" last year, which also starred Depp as Tonto. The film is supposedly set to shoot in both Puerto Rico and an undisclosed location in Louisiana. It may be a while until principal photography commences, but fans of the series are sure to be happy that the iconic series is returning to the big screen.
"Everybody's more cautious. With any movie, you're never confident. But it's a billion dollar franchise," said Bruckheimer when speaking with Entertainment Weekly last fall on the fallout from "The Lone Ranger." Depp has several projects in the works at Disney including the "Alice in Wonderland" sequel and "Into the Woods." While it is a long way off, it sounds like Disney is being cautious with the new "Pirates" film giving the writers and production team ample to time to hit that release date in 2017.
