We just told you that Johnny Depp promises their won’t be too much Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribben: On Stranger Tides; so who will be taking up screentime? Possibly Ian McShane, Deadwood veteran and beloved of many film nerds, who could be playing Blackbeard.
So that means we have Depp, Penelope Cruz and McShane, all in a story about the Fountain of Youth. And all taken from the novel On Stranger Tides, although Tim Powers’ name never seems to pop up in trade announcements. That could be because while Disney bought the novel and seems to be using the main outline of it – a pirate named Jack goes up against Blackbeard for the Fountain of Youth – large parts of it will be changed. The Jack Shandy character has a very different origin in the book than the Jack Sparrow character, and there doesn’t seem to be a role for Cruz in the original book (the heroine is a young innocent while Cruz’s character has been described as an equal and a foil to Sparrow. Probably a love interest as well).
If you’ve read the book and have some insights into what might be changed and what might stay, please feel free to comment below.
12 comments
A Grammar Nazi attack on Devin is on its way.
Awesome. McShane is one of those actors that makes me sit up and pay attention. He's like Mark Strong, except he's been doing it for longer. I for one, think he would make an excellent pirate
i have a feeling disney already had a story outline and bought the rights to the book so they could avoid a potential lawsuit later on.
"there" not "their" in the usage above.
One of my favorite books being slaughtered by Disney… To be expected I supposed, but still sad…
Still not digging the Cruz casting but applaud the possible addition of Ian McShane – brilliant.
McShane as Al Swearengen is simply the most brilliant 'villain' in TV history. Nothing else comes close.
After a bunch of not-terribly-interesting film appearances it'd be awesome to see McShane given a major, meaty role to shine. Like Bill Nighy had in those terrible sequels.
So is this Fountain of Youth story the angle Disney is using for the inevitable re-boot of the franchise with younger actors?
doesn't Barbossa have plans to follow Jack at the end of the last one..
A battle between Barbossa and Mcshane would leave Barbossa dead, again.
His performance in Coraline is alot more amazing, now that I have seen Deadwood all the way through…
God those Pirates films were bad.
I said years ago that McShane would be great in a biopic of Blackbeard. Nice to know someone out there (kind of) heard me.
First: Dump Cruz. Seriously. With all the makeup Depp wears as Sparrow, Cruz is going to look even more like a man. Second: Give Geoffrey Rush an equally 'meaty' role alongside Depp and McShane, since Depp and Rush had way more chemistry than Bloom and Knightley, and I can't be the only one who wants to see more of them playing off each other. Third: Don't screw it up.
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