'PoTC - Dead Mans Chest' News (Click! Orlando!)

Title: 'PoTC - Dead Mans Chest' News
Description: **Archived**

Jesse - January 20, 2006 03:50 PM (GMT)

Orlando has been talking to Entertainment Weekly about a scene in Pirates 2...

''There's a huge sword sequence, which, if it isn't the sword sequence that puts all sword sequences to bed, then I can't imagine what anyone could ever pull out of the ether to top it. It's a clash among three characters on a big water-mill wheel as it rolls down a hill. And we fight on top of it, and around it, and inside it. It's crazy!''

melodyslove - May 13, 2006 03:46 AM (GMT)

Some interesting news regarding the POT:DMC soundtrack from here:

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2006/05/1004.cfm

QUOTE

Bono, Waits And Cave On New Pirate-Themed Album

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest probably doesn't need much outside promotion to make it one of the summer's biggest movies, but its star is taking an extra step to get people into a swashbuckling frame of mind.

Johnny Depp is the executive producer of an album of sea shanties recorded by an impressive group of artists that's expected to arrive in stores via Epitaph Records sometime around the movie's July 7 premiere.

Producer Hal Willner, who's probably best known for his 1985 Kurt Weill tribute, Lost In The Stars, is overseeing the project. The former Saturday Night Live music supervisor has also been responsible for all-star musical tributes to Nino Rota, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and music from Walt Disney animated films.

Willner has assembled an extraordinary cast of contributors to the new album, including Bono, Bryan Ferry, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Antony And The Johnsons, Richard and Linda Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III and former Virgin Prunes singers Gavin Friday, Guggi and Dave-id.

Friday described his recording session in Dublin, Ireland as very "rum, sodomy and the lash" on his website. He sang a song called "The Baltimore Whores" that includes these bawdy lyrics: "Roly poly, tickle my holey, smell of my slimey flue, then drag your nuts across my guts."

The three former Prunes vocalists reunited for the first time since the mid-1980s to sing "Bully In The Alley."

"It was Dave-id as head pirate on lead vocals, and myself and Guggi as his shipmates on backing vocals," said Friday. "Hal said it was probably closest to what pirates really would have sounded like."

Friday recorded another song called "Tommy's Gone To Hilo" with Andrea Corr of The Corrs, whom he previously duetted with on 2003's "Time Enough For Tears" from the In America soundtrack.

"It's not really a duet, though," explained Friday. "They're all chanteys, which are call and response songs. Except Andrea's 'Caroline And Her Young Sailor Bold' and Bono's song, which are both sea songs or seamen's songs."

Bono was apparently able to get involved in the project because of the postponement of U2's antipodean tour. Friday said that he performs a song called "The Dying Sailor To His Shipmates."

:blink:

Jesse - May 13, 2006 08:31 AM (GMT)

Well, there's some mighty interesting lyrics in there! :brow:

More on the soundtrack...

QUOTE

From Film Music World:
Walt Disney Records will release Hans Zimmer's original music for Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest on July 4. It will be a score album featuring the orchestral music Hans Zimmer begins to record at the Sony Scoring Stage in Los Angeles this week. The music for the first film, released in 2003, was composed by Klaus Badelt and a group of other composers and produced by Hans Zimmer. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley all return in the sequel, and they also star in the third film, which is also being scored by Hans Zimmer. Dead Man's Chest will open theatrically on July 7.

Let's hope it slightly more interesting than the last one! :brow:

A whole soundtrack of 'duh duh duh duh-duh, duh duh duh duh-duh, duh duh duh duh-duh, duh duh-duh duh' is not appealing! :lol:

melodyslove - June 3, 2006 05:45 AM (GMT)

Zizzle.com is having a POTC:DMC look-alike contest at FAO Schwarz in New York 13 June 2006.Some cool prizes,including a car!! :D

From here: http://www.zizzle.com/piratesContest.html

Thanks to ohjohnny.net for the link. :)

melodyslove - June 8, 2006 10:22 PM (GMT)

From ohjohnny.net, a POTC:DMC-Volvo contest here:

http://www.volvocars.us/piratesofthecaribbean.htm

QUOTE

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., June 7 -- Ever wanted to experience the ways of a true buried treasure-seeking pirate? Volvo Car Corporation will support its official promotion of Disney's upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with a global, multi-media treasure hunt for a Volvo XC90 V8 that has been buried somewhere in the world.

Here's how she blows, me hearties: beginning June 12 through July 11, individuals nationwide can visit their local Volvo retailer to pick up a free treasure map. Once online, they are asked to go to www.volvocars.us/thehunt to register for the world's first hunt for a buried vehicle. Treasure hunters then will participate in a challenging, engaging and fun-filled online adventure to solve a series of online clues and puzzles.

The buried one-of-a-kind, pirate-themed Volvo XC90 features a variety of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest-inspired elements, including menacing graphics from the film, black leather seats, custom painted 20 inch wheels and more.

Once registered online, individuals will have puzzles emailed to them on a regular basis. Those who solve the puzzles correctly will continue to receive clues. Individuals can join at any time though July 11, and can catch up with other participants if they correctly answer the puzzles posted online as they are emailed to participants. As the contest progresses, the puzzles will become increasingly harder to solve, with the final online clue e-mailed July 12. Volvo Car Corporation will then select seven finalists from around the world who correctly guess the answer to the final online clue.

In August, those finalists will be flown with a guest to the secret car burial location. Each finalist will then set-off on a manic on-the-ground search for the buried vehicle. The first treasure hunter to unearth the SUV gets to keep it.

To participate, individuals must visit a Volvo retailer to pick up a treasure map. Winners will only be eligible if they can produce the original treasure map upon conclusion of the hunt.

In addition to the United States, other Volvo regions participating in the hunt include the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain and Austria.

melodyslove - June 12, 2006 04:09 AM (GMT)

ohjohnny.net posted a link to the update sceenwriter Terry Rossio made to his blog.The link is here:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...logID=131521114

It's too long to post in total here-but extrememly interesting as to the what's,hows and whys of working on a movie set,so definately GO AND READ IT!-but here are some of the highlights:

QUOTE

Marketing gurus made a presentation for Dead Man's Chest, our first glimpse at the film's one-sheet. Features Johnny, Kiera, and Orlando, much like the first movie, but done in a cool greenish color palate. They demonstrated the break-apart standees, where you could assemble four into a column or spread them out acrosss the lobby. Theater owners can arrange them as they wish. We only got to see the twelve-inch high prototypes and made the requisite Spinal Tap jokes. Orlando snuck in to see the posters, came out grinning like a kid. SMOKING!" he yells. His photo was especially cool looking, very Errol Flynn. "No WAY do I look like that!" he says happily. Orlando is always the most enthusiastic person on the set -- and why not?

QUOTE

Got to talk a little bit about merchandizing. .....Made the suggestion about Jack-the-Monkey puppet, reversable, undead on one side, live on the other.

:lol: I'd buy one of those!!

QUOTE

Playing Perudo with Orlando one night (which he is remarkably good at) Orlando tells a story about the difficulty in keeping in touch with people, often he has to register at hotels under a false name, and friends and family can't find him. Overzealous fans try to call so he has to make up a name, he uses something generic, like Tom Smith. Jonathan Pryce, not to be outdone, mentioned he also must use a false name. "What name did you pick?" Orlando asked. Jonathan deadpans, Orlando Bloom.

:lmao: Good for Jonathan!! Perudo is essentially Liar's Dice-for a more detailed explaination of the game,go here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/45

QUOTE

Damn, we see the Harry Potter teaser, and they've got the sailing ship rising out of the water gag. That's one of our key images, and now it's going to look like we copied it. Do we mention it to Gore? We bring it up to him, but Gore has already seen it and talked with the guys at ILM, and he says ours is going to look better.

QUOTE

Dinner, then it comes time for dessert, and Orlando says he had to give up caffine and sugar. The exception are Tim Tams, available only in Australia and New Zealand, "Like an orgasm in your mouth," he exclaims and Kate agrees, a set-up for a punch-line to be sure, but I think better of trying for one.

Not.Going.There.

QUOTE

Overheard: Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush speaking about doing voice-overs. Nighy had just finished some voice-over work for DreamWorks, the animated film, Flushed Away. "I got to be a brain damaged rat, in a sewer, singing Abba's 'Fernado.' I LOVE THIS JOB!"

I love Bill Nighy!!I'll bet he was a HOOT to work with. :)

QUOTE

I found this out: if you ask for gum while travelling on Johnny's private jet, the lovely attendent will return and present you with a silver tray, linen napkin, arrayed upon it many different selections, Orbitz, Extra, Trident, Big Red, etc. Whoa, intense.

QUOTE

This gets filed under 'gee life must be tough' category. The actors have a lot of down time in between set-ups or before they are called to set. Orlando Bloom has just started to play chess, and needs someone to play with. As a writer on set, after the scene is blocked and rehearsed, I'm one of the few people without a specific task, at a specific time, and that makes me available. So Orlando's assistant would often track me down and say, "Orlando wants a game!" It turns out we're nearly exactly equal in our ability (well he would say he's a little better and I would say I'm a little better). Actually, we're each just not good enough to screw up at least once a game, which makes for some grand, rollicking, sea-saw battles. Orlando is particularly good when he is in trouble, he can strike out when he's on the run. And we are both super-super-competitive people, but it was still a lot of fun, Orlando was equally excited about a good play, whether it was for him or against him

Playing chess gave me an opportunity to study Orlando's face as he studied the board -- yeah I know that sounds weird, but there was an Orlando Bloom calendar on the table he was supposed to sign, and that got me to wonder, what exactly makes this guy so good looking? So I stared and stared, and I couldn't figure it out, like most actors he has a symmetrical face, and a megawatt smile. Then I noticed his eyelashes, wow, strikingly perfect and full, I wonder if that's a big part of it?

Well,DUHHHHH. :rolleyes: Ya think???

QUOTE

Looking forward to the premier at Disneyland, our plan is to order pirate patches and scarves and pirate beads to throw to the fans. Why not? Also, maybe a couple of the portfolio crew gifts to fans who is really dressed up. If Disney was smart, they'd have some cameras out there early, showing the fans lining up to get into the park, with some free giveaways.

QUOTE

I think the character fans might have to reassess is Elizabeth, for some reason she was let her off easy in the first movie, even though she barters herself to Norrington, lying in order to get him to turn around and go save Will, and a lot of good sailors died as a result of that deed -- so what is her essential nature? She has demonstrated, time an again, she is more of a pirate than any of them. I am VERY interested to see how the fans will react to our story -- it is in fact the key question, the one that will define the fate of the franchise!

QUOTE

So we go to the scoring session, all the musicians are there with their amazing instruments, and they're playing back the three-way swordfight, with score, and it's a pretty amazing sequence. I look over to Jocelyn and she has tears in her eyes. "Why are you crying, it's not a sad sequence!" "I haven't seen any footage cut together before this and -- it's just beautiful." I point out to Gore and Hans that they made her cry. "Let's hope it works that way for everyone," Hans grins.

**AARRGGHHH**Isn't it July YET????? :woot:

Jesse - June 12, 2006 10:43 AM (GMT)

ComingSoon.net has an interview with Bill Nighy about PoTC DMC and his character Davy Jones...

QUOTE

Bill Nighy may be one of England's most underrated actors, but most people will recognize him from the dour demeanor of his characters and his distinctively dry delivery. Considering the startling appearance of his character Davy Jones in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it may be the only way to recognize Nighy when he takes on that villainous role.

Playing the bad guy is nothing new to Nighy, having cut his teeth with the role of the ancient vampire Viktor in the "Underworld" movies. More people may remember loving him as rock star Billy Mack in Richard Curtis' Love Actually or as Simon Pegg's zombie stepfather in Shaun of the Dead. With that kind of diverse background, it's not surprising that director Gore Verbinski thought Nighy would be the perfect actor to turn Davy Jones into the type of bad guy that fans of the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" would love.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to speak with the actor as he took a break in Los Angeles from the lengthy shooting of the two movies.

ComingSoon.net: So the first "Pirates" was a pretty big movie. Can you talk about how you found out that they wanted you to play the role of Davy Jones in the sequel?
Bill Nighy: Yes, I'd seen the first one, and like everybody else, I loved it, so I was very thrilled when they approached me. I got a call from Gore Verbinski, the brilliant director, and we talked about it, I read the script and it took about 30 seconds to say, "Yes." The script was extremely good, as you would expect from those guys, and if you dug the first movie, you'll get a huge bang out of the second one. I was very pleased to be involved.

CS: At that point, did you realize that your face would be obscured by octopus or squid tentacles?
Nighy: There were various drawings and yeah, it was plainly never going to resemble me, which is always a good thing. (That's a joke.) But he kind of evolved. I can't remember, but the early pictures, he always had some kind of growth coming out of his chin. I don't know if they were actually tentacles at the very beginning. I think that was a later idea, which is brilliant actually, because the tentacles live, they have a life, and they can do stuff. They are extremely unsettling and scary, which is basically Davy Jones' job in the movie, to put the fear of God into people.

CS: Did Jones intentionally have a Lovecraftian look and does his appearance have anything to do with Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythology?
Nighy: No, it's funny. I sort of thought in that area. I don't know for sure, you'd have to ask them, but it would seem that it's the kind of world that might have informed them.

CS: Was there a lot of physical make-up involved with creating those tentacles or was it all CGI?
Nighy: Oh, it's all CGI. My face is made-up to bleed into the creature, and I have to wear up those funky computer pajama trousers and have white dots all over the place for the mapping points for the computer. I'd done that stuff before where you have prosthetics, when I was a vampire in the "Underworld" movie, and I did vow then that nobody would ever be allowed to do anything of that kind to me again.

CS: So in a sense, this was more of a performance capture of your face, which was then put into the computer?
Nighy: Yeah.

CS: I know they're trying to keep a lot of the plot a secret, but can you tell us why Davy Jones is coming after Captain Jack Sparrow?
Nighy: Well, Davy Jones is very damaged and very hurt, and like a lot of people who've been profoundly hurt, his only remaining pleasure is to see other people suffer, and he's extremely good at it. He also has some friends, which as you say, I'm not at liberty to tell you about yet, who could kill you in about 18 different ways. There isn't anybody scarier than Davy Jones, and if he came into your life, he would come in at the point of death, and he would offer you a deal. It's a really, really, really, really lousy deal, but at that stage of the game, it's the only deal in town. I'd get fired if I tell you anything specific.

CS: Well, you already did the movie so you probably can't get fired.
Nighy: Well, no, but I haven't finished 3 yet.

CS: What about Davy Jones' crew? Do they have a strange appearance like their boss?
Nighy: Yeah, they're very unsettling and weird. They've been at sea far too long, and they will look very, very weird.

CS: The first movie was all about the skeleton pirates, which was pretty bizarre.
Nighy: Weirder than that. It's another step forward in terms of weird.

CS: Is the story in the second movie a continuation of what happened in the first movie or completely separate?
Nighy: Yeah, there are elements. It's rather satisfying. There's stuff you'll remember from the first, but essentially, it's a whole new tale. It kind of draws from the first movie quite cleverly, but takes you on, and the new boys, as it were, are obviously myself and Stellan Skarsgård, the brilliant Swedish actor, and young Tom Hollander, who is another brilliant actor from England. He plays the other evil, nasty piece of work, the unacceptable face of the East India Company.

CS: Obviously, Johnny, Keira, Orlando and even Gore all worked together on the first movie, so how was it coming into that circle as one of the new guys?
Nighy: Well, you do spend a couple of days feeling a bit lame and a bit like a lemon, because it's always tough coming into something that's already started, but I can't say enough about Johnny Depp, Orlando, Gore or Keira. They were extremely welcoming and couldn't have been cooler and nicer to be around. It didn't take any time at all before you were absorbed into the whole outfit, and you felt very much at home.

CS: For a movie like this, do you still end up doing table reads and rehearsals and all the stuff you do in other movies before going to the Bahamas to shoot?
Nighy: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Same kind of process. I mean it is an odd gig for me, obviously, because it's not like anything I've done before, which is one of the things that attracted me to it. Every now and again you remember that you got an octopus growing out of your chin and one of your legs is a crab leg, therefore the level of performance has to be gauged to inhabit the creature. In general terms, the job remains the same, which is to try and make it as authentic as possible, because somewhere in there, there's a guy called Davy Jones.

CS: Do you actually get to do any sword fighting in the movie?
Nighy: I have some serious sword fighting.

CS: Is that something in which you'd been trained before or did you have to do more training for the movie?
Nighy: No, I think they taught us a little bit at college. I've never been famous for it, but I have a go. I had a sword fight in the first "Underworld" movie, and I got the top of my head sliced off.

CS: So is the official word that Davy Jones is a squid man, not an octopus man?
Nighy: I don't really know what the official thing is. No, it's great. I've been very lucky to play a wide-ish range of parts, and it makes life very interesting and I'm grateful for it.

Edited to remove non-PoTC related questions

Jesse - June 12, 2006 09:56 PM (GMT)

Boy! They're pouring in today!! Another interview with Bill Nighy from IESB...

QUOTE

Ruthless villain Davy Jones, played by Bill Nighy, is said to be able to put the fear of God in all who lay eyes on him. With one crab leg and one crab claw plus squid tentacles covering where his face once was, Davey Jones is a monstrous sight.

Capt. Jack Sparrow is on the run from Jones who is trying to take his soul in order to repay a debt.

Now, one of the hottest character actors on both sides of the Atlantic, Bill Nighy's genius is an exciting addition to this already talented cast. The IESB was able to talk with Nighy about his experience as Davy Jones, working with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, plus we were curious to know just how does Davey Jones kill a man 18 different ways?

IESB: Bill, you are staying extremely busy on some big films here Stateside.

Bill: Yeah, so far so good.

IESB: You are not a stranger to blockbusters, you have become a bit more well-known here in the states. Is that something you always wanted to do or just something that happened?

Bill: It’s something you always hope might happen, because you want to, if you want to be in the movies then you need to work here (in the states) and although I’ve had a good life working in independent British movies and in the theater and on TV at home (UK) the opportunity rather late in life to work in bigger budgeted movies is unlikely and I am very grateful for it. Love Actually kind of made it possible, made me a bit more easier to cast.

IESB: You are not new to the special effects world coming from Underworld, was it quite a drastic change between, the makeup and special effects, between Underworld, playing Viktor and Davy Jones?

Bill: Yeah, it was much much different and much much easier thank God. Underworld, which I enjoyed enormously, and was very pleased to be a part of, I loved everyone involved and it was such a big hit it was so great for first time filmmakers but they did do
terrible things to me. They put me in a prosthetics truck for six hours, and the process was medieval and I had no idea, I was so naïve, never having done any prosthetics before, I thought there was sort of a zip up the back. But in fact, they encase you in latex and it adheres to your body with industrial adhesive, once you’re in there nobody will have lunch with you anymore. It’s kind of a strange experience, where is on this (Pirates) thank God, I just had to have some facial makeup in order to bleed into the character and the rest was sort of mapping dots for the computer guys and therefore I was free to roam.

IESB: So there weren’t any tentacles actually applied to your face?

Bill: That’s all computer generated.

IESB: You’ve gone on record saying Davey Jones can kill you in 18 different ways…

Bill: Well actually that’s an understatement, there is no limit of what he could do to you, if he really wanted to get interested. And if he can’t do it he has friends that really can. Friends who are I’m currently at liberty to describe to you, but trust me you’ve not seen anything like it.

IESB: So what we’ve seen in the trailers…

Bill: There is so much more, so much more. The ship (The Flying Dutchmen) and the gentleman that he does business with, they are seriously spooky. And he has friends you really don’t want to be around. So yeah, his job in the movie is to spread the fear and suffering, and he does it very, very well.

IESB: We know he has the tentacles, he has a crab leg and a crab claw, is that accurate?

Bill: That is correct.

IESB: Do we find out why Davy Jones is like this?

Bill: You do, eventually you do, takes a while but yeah you do. If I told you obviously it would spoil it but there is a very good and very tragic reason why he’s like this. And later, stuff happens, which is quite revealing.

IESB: Are you still working on 3 or are you done?

Bill: No, there’s still some to do on, there’s a bit more to do on 3, we did a lot of 3 during the previous shooting period when we completed 2 but there’s still a little to do which will be done in the summer in Los Angeles.

IESB: The first Pirates was a huge hit, they made a reference to Davy Jones in it, how early on were you approached and asked to come aboard?

Bill: Relatively early on, it was, I can’t really remember now but it was quite early on in the planning, once they had the script, and they had some early drawings which don’t now bear much resemblance to the finished creature but they were still quite extraordinary even then. So, it was quite early on.

IESB: Again, without revealing too much, can we say that the Davy Jones of Pirates 2 is drastically different than the Davy Jones of Pirates 3?

Bill: Da-dum, da-dum…how do I put that? You should be a lawyer or something (laughing) you should be a Barrister.

IESB: Ok we’ll leave that one alone then…

Bill: Yeah, let’s leave that one alone

IESB: Let’s talk about the people you spent the most screen time with.

Bill: I do quite a lot with Johnny, and I do a considerable amount with Orlando. And, quite a lot with Stellan Skarsgard the brilliant Swedish actor who’s in the movie who plays Bootstrap Bill, who is an actor I am sure you are familiar with, it was a great thrill to work with him and I worked with Johnny and Orlando and they were both wonderful and very welcoming because we’re like the new boys, Stellan and myself and Tom Hollander, the young brilliant English actor who plays the other nasty piece of work (Lord Cutler Beckett) the other villain along with me, we’re the new boys and they made us feel very much at home. Working with Johnny was thrilling and lovely, he’s so brilliant in the movie, that character is so, well it’s iconic now, it’s sort of entered the language, it’s one of those few performances that will, I believe, will survive down through the years. Just brilliant and profoundly funny, and witty performance. They were all, young Orlando was a sweet man, very good and staunch colleague, it was a gas, very nice people.

IESB: I know that you are getting ready to work with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright on Hot Fuzz, are you already doing that, is that happening?

Bill: Already don’t that actually, and it’s a very brief appearance but I was very proud and pleased to be asked back, I so much enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, which was such a gas and I’m a big fan of those boys, I love them, I think their incredibly clever and they’re very funny and they make me laugh all the time. I’m, along with Martin Freeman, who you all know a young comic English actor, brilliant, he’s in “The Office”, he plays Tim, he was also in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Steve Coogan, we three make a really brief but telling appearance in Hot Fuzz, I’m very happy to do that.

IESB: Bill thank you very much, are we seeing you here at the premiere in LA?

Bill: I am not sure, I hope so. Thank you, God bless you.

Jesse - June 14, 2006 06:13 PM (GMT)

Johnny Depp Zone reports that the Paris premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is being screened at the Paris Cinéma Film Festival, July 6th at 7.45 pm, at cinema Gaumont Champs-Elysees Marignan.

Orlando, Johnny and Keira are schduled to attend.

Jesse - June 16, 2006 02:21 PM (GMT)

From China Daily, news on the postproduction...

QUOTE

With the humongous, celebrity-packed Disneyland premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" right around the corner (June 24), the moviemakers are still putting the final, final touches on the flick that's expected to be another blockbuster for producer Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom.

Such down-to-the-wire finishing up of a picture is nothing new for Bruckheimer. But "Pirates 2," which is being released July 7, must be a new high-water mark. Postproduction forces "have been going 24/7 since March," according to one insider.

The legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his sea phantom minions have required enormous effort from the computer-generated imagery team - far more than did Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and his skeletal crew in the first flick.

On top of that, the long and historically destructive hurricane season last year prevented the team from finishing the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, as had been planned. The company will have to return to the Caribbean to complete that one.

And from SunSentinel, news on The Black Pearls whereabouts. (Thats the 'Pearl' from the films not the Volvo Ocean Race 'Pearl' -yeah I know, confusing!)

QUOTE

It's really big, really black, and really, really scary -- just the kind of vessel a crew of skeletal pirates would feel right at home in. Though you may not recognize it, if you're a dedicated filmgoer, you've most likely seen it.

The Black Pearl, the pirate ship from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, is at a Dania Beach marina being spruced up after several months of sea and salt exposure. The 150-foot-long, 38-foot-wide faux galleon was built in Alabama from the wooden hull of a supply ship and is painted black from stem to stern, said lead painter Giovanni Ferrara.

"People see it and say, `What the heck is this old boat doing here?'" Ferrara said. "When they realize this is the Black Pearl, Johnny Depp's boat, they freak out."

It's only natural for the Pearl to come to Broward County for repair; the area is an international destination for maritime maintenance. The vessel rests alongside a dock at G&G Shipping, but unless you're passing by on a public waterway, you'll have a hard time catching a glimpse of it. The marina is private, and visitors must pass security.

The ship comes complete with gun ports, massive anchors amidships and the oversized figurehead of a woman releasing a dove. Even the rigging is painted black. With two engines, the ship can navigate on its own, but sometimes requires the help of tugs.

Ferrara said the ship spent time last year in the Caribbean filming the sequels to the Pirates of the Caribbean. It has been in town for about a month getting re-painted before leaving on a yacht transfer ship Monday for California, for about three more weeks of filming.

And a Press Release from Yahoo concerning the Disney Premiere...

QUOTE

NEW YORK, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

WHO: From the film - Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Naomie
Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander, Kevin
McNally, Lee Arenberg, Mackenzie Crook, Martin Klebba, producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski.

Other guests include - Cuba Gooding Jr., Christina Applegate,
Rachel Bilson, James Cameron, Kristin Cavalleri, Michelle
Trachtenberg, Blink 182's Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker,
Shanna Moakler, Jennifer Love Hewitt, James Denton, Matt Leinart,
Jane Russell, Andy Samberg, Jon Voight, Tony Shalhoub, Jane
Kaczmarek, Bradley Whitford, Lynda Carter, Melinda Clarke, Rodney
Peete and Holly Robinson Peete, Dennis Rodman, Erik Estrada,
Billy Ray Cyrus, "Dancing with the Stars" Stacy Keibler, Lisa
Rinna, Louis van Amstel, Tia Carrere, and Cheryl Burke, Harry
Hamlin, Olympian Chad Hedrick, Cal Ripken, Kareem Abdul Jabbar,
Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Kyle Massey, Simon Wakelin, X Atencio,
"Cheetah Girls" Kiely Williams and Adrienne Bailon, Chris Harrison,
"Disney's High School Musical" stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne
Hudgens.

WHAT: World Premiere of Walt Disney Pictures', in association with Jerry
Bruckheimer Films, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST at
Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

WHEN: Saturday, June 24, 2006 WHERE: DISNEYLAND
Press Arrivals: 3:00 PM Red Carpet on Main Street USA
Talent Arrivals: 5:00 - 6:00 PM 1313 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 28027

Jesse - June 16, 2006 09:54 PM (GMT)

AIN'T IT COOL NEWS has details of a visit to the editing room of PoTC2.

Before you click the link and read...it contains MASSIVE spoilers. I read half way and then stopped!

Jesse - June 19, 2006 08:21 PM (GMT)

*SQUICK* *MEEP* *ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH*

I'm calm! I'm calm!...

QUOTE

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Monday 3rd July
At
Odeon Leicester Square

Arrivals: 5.30pm Seated: 7.15pm Film Starts: 7.45pm

Cast Members in attendance include:
Johnny Depp
Orlando Bloom
Keira Knightley
Bill Nighy
Jack Davenport
Tom Hollander
Mackenzie Crook
Naomi Harris
Kevin R. McNally
Stellan Skarsgård
Jerry Bruckheimer (prod)

The Jolly Roger will be flying at full mast on Monday July 3rd when Captain Jack Sparrow and his shipmates will dock at the Odeon Leicester Square. Amidst a sea of loyal fans Hollywood A-listers Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom will be ‘walking the carpet’ to mark the release of their second heart thumping epic sea quest - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Also present will be British favourites Bill Nighy, Jack Davenport, Mackenzie Crook, Tom Hollander, Naomi Harris and Kevin R McNally.

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley reunite in Walt Disney Pictures' PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST, in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Films, an all new epic tale chronicling the further mis-adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow.Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski from a screenplay written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, Captain Jack sets sail on an all new adventure – filled with more intrigue, more spectacular special effects and more comedy.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest will be released by Buena Vista International in the UK and Ireland on 6th July 2006.

Media and Photo Pens will be open from 4.00 pm
All positions must be secured by 5.15pm

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

Is it time to go yet? Is it time to go yet? Is it time... :eek:

What????????????? :brow:

ETA: There's more...

Sounds clips from the PoTC 2 Audio CD are now available at Soundtrack.Net.

Off to have a listen...and most probably pre-order from Amazon! :D

BACK!!! Good Lord! That's an amazing soundtrack. I want to cry listening to 'A Family Affair', that's so beautiful. But, whats with the last track? :blink:

Amazon.com...here I come!!! :eek:

Jesse - June 26, 2006 08:44 AM (GMT)

ComingSoon.net talks to Gore Verbinski

QUOTE

If Gore Verbinski isn't the busiest director in Hollywood, then he's certainly the most ambitious. The visionary filmmaker has taken on many challenges, helming movies that most people didn't think would work, the most famous of them being the 2003 summer blockbuster, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which grossed over $300 million in the U.S. alone.

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't like the swashbuckler, let alone love it, so there's obviously a lot of pressure to make sure its sequel is just as good. Not only was Gore Verbinski up to that challenge, but he decided to make TWO sequels, shooting both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and its follow-up, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, back-to-back. (He also found the time to make the comedy The Weather Man with Nicholas Cage in the middle of all those swashbuckling epics.)

Somehow, this very busy director found a few minutes to talk to ComingSoon.net, though he sounded pretty exhausted having spent his day off from working on the movies to talk to journalists about them.

ComingSoon.net: Have you been filming the third movie while finishing up editing and post-production on the second?
ore Verbinski: Well, we've basically had to put the third movie on hold. We've shot about a third of it. Just getting back into it, prepping, and we have 2/3rds left to shoot. So I've really been grinding, just barely making the deadline on the second one.

CS: Wow! Did you literally finish shooting the second one first before starting on the third?
Verbinski: No, we were on certain islands and locations, and we had certain assets, like boats and things, that we had to shoot out that occur in the third movie, so it's sort of randomly spread out. If we're at a particular location while the crew and everybody's there filming 2, if it's the right location for the third film, we'd shoot that scene at that time, so that really justified everything. We scouted the locations and said that this is a good location for this scene in "Pirates 2" and for these two scenes in "Pirates 3," so while we were there, we would shoot the two scenes for 3. Other than that, anything that was for P3 that wasn't location or asset specific, meaning occurring on a particular boat, we would push it, so that's why we've got 2/3rds to do.

CS: Were you trying to edit and do some of the effects as you went along on "Dead Man's Chest"?
Verbinski: No, we stop and then I start editing. My editor cuts the movie while I'm away, but that's sort of an assembly, and they start doing the fine cut when I get back.

CS: How have the actors changed since making the first movie with them? Obviously, Orlando and Keira were not as experienced when you did the first movie.
Verbinski: I think [they have] a little more confidence, which is always useful when you're dealing with… a lot of aspects of the production required us to shoot things very quickly or change the schedule, and it's nice to have actors who are a little more confident. It's nice to also, in that situation, have veterans. When you've got Geoffrey Rush and in this case Bill Nighy, Stellan [Skarsgård], the other actors get on their game a little bit more when they're in a scene with a tried-and-true veteran.

CS: When the first movie came out, pirate movies in general were not in fashion, so were you surprised by how many people embraced this?
Verbinski: Well, I felt confident that it was going to work. I think Johnny Depp's performance is the exponential factor, and certainly, that was the thing that made the film that much more unique and wanting people to come back again and again. We've got some new twists and turns. I think knock on wood, audiences will really enjoy this one.

CS: Generally, people really love Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow, which is a very odd character. Johnny Depp obviously had a fanbase and a career beforehand, but it seemed like it raised him to another level in that sense.
Verbinski: I think throughout film history, audiences generally respond to people taking risks, whether it's a race car driver or what, they can see in that performance, that it was a risk and a bold one. I think that they like that, and if Hollywood keeps giving audiences the same old characters, they stop going to the movies.

CS: Is there more pressure on you for this one than when you did the first movie or is it easier because you have a movie like it under your belt?
Verbinski: Well, both. I think the pressure comes from expectations. I think the first movie, everybody thought we would fail, and this is the movie where everybody thinks we're going to succeed. You have the opposite problem.

CS: The first "Pirates" was the first PG-13 movie from Disney. Did you know that it was going to be PG-13 while you were making it?
Verbinski: I knew it was going to be PG-13, I didn't know if they were going to put the Disney brand on it or not. So I just make the movie and they decide whether they're willing to take the soccer moms through that. They've developed a certain trust relationship with the Disney brand throughout the years, so they have to look at the material and say, "Hey, is this something we want to put our name or not." And in this case, they've agreed to. Now I kind of know the target, which is really PG-10, not really PG-13. I've got a 7 and a 9-year-old boy, so I'm making the movie where adults will enjoy it, but also I can take my 9-year-old.

CS: When I talked to Bill Nighy, he said that his character and his crew were very disturbing and menacing. Do you think younger kids might be scared by that?
Verbinski: I think they'll be fascinated by it. Bill Nighy really has a fantastic way of sort of celebrating villainy. I think we have the kind of villains and kind of characters that kids just go, "Whoa, that was so cool!" So I didn't think that it's particularly nightmarish, as much as it's really pretty wicked and fun and holds down the whole movie in terms of creating an obstacle for Captain Jack Sparrow.

CS: I remember that you'd think the skeletons in the movie would be scary, but they really were very cool like the skeletons in the Sinbad movies.
Verbinski: Yeah, I liked those a lot.

CS: As far as the creatures and Davy Jones, how involved were you in creating the look of them? Do you have a team of people to do that?
Verbinski: Yeah, I work with a guy named Crash, who is an illustrator, and I work with a good friend of mine and storyboard artist named Jim Burkett, and that's really the idea factory. We design the characters with pencil and paper, a lot of sketches, and that's where it starts, and then from there, it moves to ILM. By the time it gets to ILM, that's really more, "How do we achieve it?" All of those characters have really been designed in my office, Davy Jones, the crew, and all the action set pieces. It's the funnest part of the job.

CS: What has been the most challenging part of creating these new creatures, in terms of effects? Are you using the same effects team as the first movie?
Verbinski: Yeah, John Knoll and Hal Hickle at ILM. You know, really, getting Davy Jones right was probably the biggest challenge, visual effects wise, and fatigue is a challenge, just because you're shooting two movies and it's exhausting. Technically, we shot Bill Nighy on location acting, but he was covered in dots and tracking points in a spandex outfit. Reanimating his character in the computer and trying to retain all the nuance of Bill's original performance was really the challenge, and those guys did an extraordinary job. You see Bill through the animation, which is nice.

CS: Bill also mentioned that he was appearing in 3, so are these next two parts linked together with a continuation? How will that work?
Verbinski: Well, I think you can look at it as a trilogy. I think there are elements of 1 that are going to be in 3, and everything from Will's father, Bootstrap Bill, and the East India Trading Company, and things that were sort of mentioned in the first movie, you get to see come to life, and they're also in the third movie. We have our cast of characters, and you can sort of look at it as one big story, but it's certainly also three concise and fun and entertaining films.

CS: How long did the movie end up running, and was there anything you had to cut that you ended up spending a lot of time working on?
Verbinski: Yeah, you always do that. I think the movie is six minutes longer than the first one. You always end up cutting stuff out when you first put it together. It's just the nature of making a movie, but it's a fun ride, it really is. They'll be a few little surprises on the DVD.

CS: Would you ever do something like this, where you shoot two movies at once, again?
Verbinski: No. No, I don't recommend it. It's just too exhausting. You don't have a day off for years and weekends are an important thing in human existence. So I certainly haven't had any. Actors can come and go, and they're not required to work as many days as the director. The director, you're there every day.

CS: Your other movie "The Weather Man" came out last year, so were you able to finish that before starting back up on the "Pirates" movies?
Verbinski: They sort of overlapped a little bit, the prep on "Pirates 2" overlapped the post on "Weather Man."

CS: When the "Pirates" movies are done, do you hope to get back to doing more of those character-type movies?
Verbinski: I actually want to get to a place where I'm not sure what I'm doing next. This has been such a 3-year commitment, I'm wide open, honestly. I'm not sure whether I want to do a small movie, or another big movie. I just want to get to a place where I don't owe anybody anything, and then I'll go from there.

CS: Do you think you'd want to do another movie with Johnny or Orlando or Keira again, something non-Pirates related maybe?
Verbinski: Sure, they're my friends and my kind of partners in this, and they're all actors of caliber that I would take anywhere. It's really the material that drives those choices, though. Whatever I decide to do next, I'm going to look at the story and then say, "Hey, who do I want to cast in this?" I wouldn't press an actor into a role that I didn't feel like they could knock out of the park.

Jesse - June 26, 2006 08:02 PM (GMT)

Not sure where to put this one...it seems to cover a mulititude of topics! :rolleyes:

QUOTE

The Celebrity CafeIn addition to the new movie, more “Pirates“ news is unveiled at the Disneyland screening.

Disneyland's Main Street was packed with onlookers as the stars of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" arrived at the film's premiere Saturday.

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley greeted hordes of fans as they made their way down Main Street to the pirate ship waiting to take them to Tom Sawyer's Island premiere. Other stars attending the premiere included Kate Bosworth and Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with first lady Maria Shriver.

Also on hand were the creative minds behind the "Pirates" sequel, who revealed the latest news on the third film opening next year.

The title of the next film, due for a Memorial Day opening, will likely be "At World's End" and will wrap up the story from the cliffhanger ending in "Dead Man's Chest," screenwriter Terry Rossio said.

"It's the pirates' last stand; the end of an era," Rossio said.

The third film will also introduce Chow Yun-Fat as a Chinese pirate. All of the Caribbean scenes for the film have been shot, while interior scenes will be shot later this summer.

Disney chairman Dick Cook also revealed that new animatronic figures of Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom would be added to the already-renovated Pirates of the Caribbean ride next year.

I am SO going to Disneyland! :woot:

melodyslove - June 28, 2006 10:33 PM (GMT)

From here:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060627/latu105.html?.v=54

QUOTE

Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre Offers the Ultimate Pirate Experience During Its 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' Run From July 7th - Sept 4th; 24 Hours of 'Pirates' Kicks Off Thursday With Sold-Out Midnight Show

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Yo ho, yo ho, it's a pirate's life for moviegoers at Hollywood's legendary El Capitan Theatre from July 7th -- September 4th as "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," the exciting new adventure from Walt Disney Pictures and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, sails into port for a special engagement accompanied by an exclusive display of props from the film, it was announced today (6/27) by Lylle Breier, senior vice president of worldwide special events for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. A midnight show on Thursday July 6th (sold out two months in advance) kicks off a round-the-clock, 24-hour "Pirates" marathon, followed by two additional early morning shows -- at 3:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m -- and the day's regularly scheduled shows. El Capitan guests will be treated to a colorful array of props and set pieces from the film including cannons, costumes, treasure chests, Captain Jack Sparrow's ring, and pieces of the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman ships themselves. Tickets for this special engagement of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" can be purchased at the El Capitan box office, on line at www.elcapitantickets.com, or by calling 1-800-DISNEY6. For groups of 20 or more, call 1-818-845-3110 for special rates and availability.

Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store, located adjacent to the El Capitan Theatre, will also be celebrating the return of Jack Sparrow by offering a "Pirate's Treasure Sundae." This mouth-watering concoction includes an island of butter rum-flavored ice cream surrounded by a sea of rich chocolate sauce. Candy coated chocolate jewels, mounds of whipped cream, and a collectable souvenir bowl add to the fun. The Studio Store will be offering three exclusive "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" pins, which can be viewed by visiting www.disneysodafountain.com.

Commenting on the announcement, Breier said, "Moviegoers and pirate fans are going to have a blast during this special engagement of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' at the El Capitan Theatre. Not only will they be seeing the film digitally projected with state-of-the-art picture and sound, but they'll get a chance to see some very authentic props and set pieces that were actually used in the making of the film. We're very excited to be celebrating this great new film from Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, and we know that the El Capitan is the ideal place to experience this amazing new big screen adventure."

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Gore Verbinski, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" stars Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley, along with a colorful cast of pirates, privateers, and adventurers. The film follows the further adventures of the mischievous Captain Jack Sparrow, this time as he tries to settle a blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones, ruler of the ocean depths, and the captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. Unless the ever-crafty Jack figures a cunning way out of this pact, he will be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation. Jack's uncertain future interrupts the wedding plans of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who once again find themselves thrust into Jack's troubles and travels. This leads to complications and confrontations with sea monsters, cannibals, ghost pirates, the Gypsy Queen, and even the mysterious appearance of Will's long-lost father, Bootstrap Bill.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_cap...ntain/main.html

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_capitan/

melodyslove - June 29, 2006 01:24 PM (GMT)

Well,here we go!! :)

From here,keep reading,it gets better:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/...8/rid/10697901/

QUOTE

In his Oscar nominated performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp swanned through the first Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) with enough wicked zest to make you forget the film was a bloated crock. The flab extends to the overlong (two hours and thirty minutes) sequel, but mostly in the dawdling setup. A pirate could braid his beard in the time it takes for producer Jerry Bruckheimer's floating franchise to cut loose from the shoals of plot incoherence and put a wind in its sails. But once it does, nothing can stop it. The second Pirates does more than improve on the original, it pumps out the bilge and offers a fresh start. Returning director Gore Verinski and screenwriters Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott have wisely taken a cue from Depp and learned how to play fast and loose with the material. Lively is an odd word for something called Dead Man's Chest, but lively it is. You won't find hotter action, wilder thrills or loopier laughs this summer.

Where did they go right? Start with Depp who could have hit paydirt just by repeating himself as Capt. Jack, the skeeviest pirate on the high seas. How easy it would be to let the dreads, the mascara and the gold teeth do the acting for him. Instead, Depp builds on the role, investing his pirate prince with quick wit, erotic mischief and a sneaky sense of decency. Keith Richards, who will play Jack's father in the third chapter of the series, is only one of Depp's inspirations for a character that keeps springing surprises. Depp's Capt. Jack is a classic comic creation and also the most subversive hero ever in a Disney movie -- a debauched, bi-sexual narcissist with a devilish glint that suggests he'll never tell where he's stashed his drug kit. You can't take your eyes off him.

Issue a ration of rum to the other actors who have managed to scrape the barnacles off their performances. Keira Knightley as Elizabeth and Orlando Bloom as Will, her intended, are finally asked to do more than stand around and look pretty and oh so pleased with themselves. Will meets up with his father Bootstrap Bill (the excellent Stellan Skarsgard) and Elizabeth finds her own inner pirate when she dresses up as a lad to stow away on ship. "I'm looking for the man I love," she tells Jack, whose retort --"I'm flattered, sir" -- has a teasing kinkiness. When hottie fortune teller Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) comes on to Jack and Will with a question -- "Do you want to know me?" -- Jack shuts down her lascivious smirk with a quick, "They'll be no knowing here."

And there isn't. Dead Man's Chest has blockbuster fish to fry, which means nonstop action, including a cannibal cookout (Jack is garlanded with a necklace of severed toes), narrow escapes, cliff dangling, duels on a giant wheel, a fight for a harvested human heart and every trick the filmmakers could raid from Spielberg's Indiana Jones trilogy. Homage or ripoff? You be the judge. The important thing is that it works. And what works most devilishly is Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), the squid-faced captain of the Flying Dutchman who bargains for the souls of those he captures. Davy and his crew of the undead have lived underwater so long they look like something out of an aquarium. I don't have a clue how the computer wizards accomplished the visual miracles -- just wait till you see the Kraken, a giant sea monster who sucks entire ships down into Davy's locker -- but Nighy's performance as the buccaneer Jack calls "fish face" brims over with mirth and menace. With slimy tentacles wiggling around his head, Nighy blows away every other villain this summer. Not since Disney killed Bambi's mother (Nemo's too) has the studio Walt built upped the jolt ante so high on PG-13 entertainment. Kids may wet their pants, but so what? It's the triumphant rogue in Depp that keeps this pirate ship afloat and actually makes the third voyage (coming next summer) a trip worth booking.

PETER TRAVERS

Jesse - June 29, 2006 05:22 PM (GMT)

News on the PoTC DMC DVD...

QUOTE

June 28, 2006 - During the recent press day for Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest, executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer discussed some of the bonus materials that will be found on the forthcoming DVD. Speaking in an interview with IGN, Bruckheimer said, "There's a lot of phenomenal stuff that we filmed that is not in the movie. That dice game - there's some additional footage on that dice game that's fantastic that will be in the DVD. There's a lot of stuff like that."

When asked how much of this material will require an expanded slate of special effects, Bruckheimer responded, "they're already completed. Gore [Verbinski, the director, is] getting time to go into the editing room and kind of go through all that material and start putting it together. [There is] some wonderful stuff on Cannibal Island with Johnny. Some very funny things that you just couldn't put everything in."

Bruckheimer also said that the disc would feature a bounty of behind-the-scenes footage. "Tons of it," the producer indicated. "We had a guy there most of the time. I think we gave the assistant cameramen some video cameras or digital cameras that they were filming stuff, so there's a lot of material available."

He also revealed that they commissioned an actual documentary filmmaker to chronicle the production. "There was a documentarian that was following Gore around during the pre-production and the script phase of it, which has got some wonderful stuff. And decisions that were made on building the ships - not building the ships, [but] where to build things, what to do, the twists and turns in the script."

As for attaching the trailer for the third installment, he suggested that there is a distinct possibility. "In the DVD? Yeah, I would imagine we would," Bruckheimer confessed. "I would think so."

IGN.com

It's going to be a good Christmas this year!! :yahoo:

melodyslove - July 2, 2006 05:20 PM (GMT)

From here:

http://hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/r...002765229&imw=Y

QUOTE

Like the Disneyland ride that inspired the movie series, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" rolls from one envelope-pushing special effects sequence to another with little connective tissue. The filmmakers seem cheerfully resolved that narrative never get in the way of buccaneer fun. Cannibals, sword fights, a sea monster, tavern brawls, supernatural sailors and harrowing escapes hit the screen in such bewildering profusion that all sense of purpose is swallowed up in this heady boys' adventure run amok. There is, in fact, only one purpose: Give Johnny Depp room to perform the Great Lounge Act of the Seven Seas.

Anticipation is huge for the middle film in this projected pirate trilogy, so "Dead Man's Chest" should equal if not surpass the $656 million worldwide gross of 2003's "The Curse of the Black Pearl." Most of the crew has reunited under the helm of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, including Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, as the second and third films were shot simultaneously in Caribbean locales.

Depp is less a swashbuckler than a swishbuckler as he prances and preens through the movie with a bemused scowl on his face and the devil-may-care attitude of a hero who knows things will turn out well. He is the comic gel that holds the whole enterprise together. The performance is a total delight that somehow combines Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan and Charlie Chaplin.

"Dead Man's Chest" revolves around a blood debt Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) owes to Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), the legendary fiend aboard his ghostly ship, the Flying Dutchman. To escape this fate, Captain Jack must recover a key that will open a buried chest containing his nemesis' still-beating heart.

Others want to seize this chest, however, most particularly the East India Trading Co.'s Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander). He imprisons Will Turner (Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Knightley) before their wedding on trumped-up charges so that Will is motivated to beat Captain Jack to the prize. Along the way are encounters with Will's father, Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), who long ago lost his soul to Davy Jones; a blackened-tooth Jamaican soothsayer, Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris); and Mercer (David Schofield), Beckett's informer in ne'er-do-well disguise.

Many characters are unearthly creatures with extreme physiologies -- essentially bloated, decaying, barnacle-encrusted corpses of dead sailors arisen zombielike to terrorize the sea. Their leader, Davy Jones, is the movie's most amazing creature. His head is that of an octopus whose many tentacles wiggle, glower and reach out ominously as he rages against all living beings. This imagery gets repeated in his pet sea monster, Kraker, a giant version of his head.

Nighy does a great job of getting across his tormented character despite his face being hidden behind special effects. Knightley, who gets lovelier with each picture, makes a stout-hearted heroine, adept at physical action yet demure when need be. Bloom, though, is too much in earnest as if he were playing Errol Flynn rather than a comic version of same.

If one wants to carp about such things, this family adventure has morphed into something decidedly odd, though perhaps it fits the zeitgeist: The film overflows with as much gleeful sadism as a PG-13 rating can contain. Birds pluck eyes from living captives, a father must whip the flesh from his son's back, Captain Jack is prepared for roasting, and the threat of rape clearly looms over Elizabeth as she languishes in prison.

The whole pirate stew is flavored with moral fuzziness. The movie views pirates, who rob and murder on the high seas, as exemplars of fun-loving freedom; the East India Trading Company -- admittedly an imperialistic global corporation but nevertheless one that wants to rid the seas of homicidal criminals -- represents the forces of repression.

This production is a vast, expensive, sprawling affair that never feels out of control thanks to Verbinski's assured direction. Dariusz Wolski's cinematography superbly admires Rich Heinrich's lavish sets, while Hans Zimmer's busy though effective score -- he makes nice use of organ music -- pumps the action.

The film also marks the debut of a snappy new logo for Walt Disney Pictures that gives Sleeping Beauty's Castle a glittering cityscape in which to shine.

Jesse - July 6, 2006 03:48 PM (GMT)

This is an interesting little item from 'News and Star'

QUOTE

Pearls of Wisdom
The film is inspired by the popular Walt Disney theme park attraction of the same name.

Jim Carrey was originally considered for the role of Jack Sparrow, the role played by Johnny Depp.

Many of the cast and crew were seasick while filming Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – Keira Knightley took seasickness pills but they made her fall asleep.

Clothing and smears of charcoal were used to conceal Johnny Depp’s numerous tattoos. The “Jack Sparrow” tattoo on his arm in the movie is fake, but he got a real replica after finishing the film, in honour of his son Jack.

Princess Eugenie celebrated her 16th birthday earlier this year with a £30,000 Pirates of the Caribbean-themed party·

Captain Barbossa, played by Geoffrey Rush, has the first name Hector.

Keira Knightley’s hair had to be extended for The Curse of the Black Pearl because it was still short from her role in Bend It Like Beckham.

The final cannon shot during the Black Pearl’s siege of the town, billows into a Mickey Mouse head shape against the night sky.

Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Tobey Maguire, and Christian Bale were all considered for the role of Will Turner, who is played in the film by Orlando Bloom.

The third Pirates of the Caribbean film will be subtitled At World’s End.

Jim Carrey as Captain Jack??? :o Oh no,no, no, no... :headhurts:

Jesse - July 7, 2006 01:40 PM (GMT)

You can now listen to the FULL 'POTC DMC' CD at AOL MUSIC

DMC is on course to break box office records this summer. It took a record-breaking £2.3m (€3.3m) at the UK box office on day one of its release, figures showed today. It is Disney’s biggest ever first day opening. At present it is selling an average of seven tickets per second! :yahoo:

Orlando will be in Tokyo, Japan tomorrow for the POTC 2 Japan promo. He will probably arrive before midnight. The press conference will be held on July 10 at 1 - 2pm Japan time, the red carpet event will be take place at 5:55 - 7pm.

melodyslove - July 15, 2006 02:59 AM (GMT)

USA Cable Network will be the one airing POTC:DMC,eventually. :)

From here:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/C...y=Breaking+News

QUOTE

USA Will Open Dead Man’s Chest
By Jim Benson

In a 4 1/2-year deal valued at $20 million-$25 million, USA Network has acquired the debut fall 2008 television window for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which opened this past weekend with the highest-grossing three-day box office total in history at more than $135 million.

The NBC Universal network is expected to wind up paying about 12% of the domestic box office gross for the cable rights to the sequel. USA had been considered the front-runner since it has the cable rights to the first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, which debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Once Buena Vista Television hammers out the broadcast-network component of the deal, the duration of the various cable windows will be determined.

In announcing the acquisition at today’s Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jane Blaney, USA’s senior VP, programming, says “no film fits our brand better than Pirates.”

The latest Pirates movie from Jerry Bruckheimer Films, which reunites Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, surpassed the previous three-day record-holder, Spider-Man, by almost $21 million.

It also smashed more box office records than any other movie in recent history, including biggest single-day haul and opening day ($55.5 million on Friday). Pirates is the first film to rake in $100 million in two days.

melodyslove - July 16, 2006 01:44 AM (GMT)

MY husband gets a magazine at work called Home Media Retailing and in this weeks copy,there is a short article regarding the DVD release of POTC:DMC,with some interesting tidbits.

From here:

http://www.homemediaretailing.com/index.cf...x=12&image.y=18

Scroll down and click on the "Dead Men May Tell Tales" link.

QUOTE

Dead Men May Tell Tales
Author: FRED TOPEL

Director Gore Verbinski is so busy shooting two sequels back to back for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, he hasn’t had much time to plan DVDs. But as Verbinski finished the first sequel, Dead Man’s Chest — which hit theaters this past weekend — producer Jerry Bruckheimer said more footage of a dice game with ghosts may end up on the DVD.

Visual effects already have been completed on the additional footage of the contest between Will (Orlando Bloom) and the ghosts of cursed pirates.

“There aren’t really whole scenes that were omitted, but there are a lot of pieces of scenes and more information about characters,” Verbinski said.

“[There is] some wonderful stuff on Cannibal Island with Johnny [Depp], some very funny things that you just couldn’t put in,” Bruckheimer added.

Writer Ted Elliot said filmmakers shot a scene featuring Jack Davenport as Commodore Norrington at the end of the movie, but since it contained information more relevant to the third film, it was omitted from the second.

“It’s all theory until you’ve got it in front of the audience,” Elliot said. “When we were actually looking at the movie, we didn’t need that information in this movie.”

Bruckheimer suspects the DVD for Dead Man’s Chest could include a trailer for the third “Pirates” film, though Verbinski is unsure he will have enough material completed in time.

“I don’t know if we’re going to have enough shots or the visual effects completed,” he said. “These DVDs come out so fast now.”

The one thing that is certain is there will be plenty of behind-the-scenes material for documentaries and featurettes.

“We had a guy there most of the time,” Bruckheimer said. “I think we gave the assistant cameramen some video cameras or digital cameras, so there’s a lot of material available. There was a documentarian that was following Gore around during the pre-production and the script phase of it, which has got some wonderful stuff. And information on decisions that were made on building the ships, not building the ships, where to build things, what to do, the twists and turns in the script [are available].”

Jesse - July 16, 2006 09:46 PM (GMT)

Was just shutting down for the night when I noticed this in my inbox...

QUOTE

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- ``Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' was the top movie for the second weekend in a row, bringing in an estimated $62.2 million in ticket sales for Walt Disney Co. after last week's record debut.

``Pirates,'' starring Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, has grossed $258.2 million since it opened July 7, film-tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. said. Its $135.6 million debut set opening-day, two-day and weekend records.
Bloomberg

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

melodyslove - July 17, 2006 05:38 AM (GMT)

A bit more on the same subject from CNN,here:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/...e.ap/index.html

QUOTE

'Pirates' sequel plunders box office again
'Dead Man's Chest' approaches $300 million

BOX OFFICE TOP 10
Following are the top 10 movies at the North American box office for January 9-11, according to studio estimates collected Sunday by The Associated Press. Final figures will be issued Monday.

1. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," $62.2 million
2. "Little Man," $21.7 million
3. "You, Me and Dupree," $21.3 million
4. "Superman Returns," $11.6 million
5. "The Devil Wears Prada," $10.45 million
6. "Cars," $7.5 million
7. "Click," $7 million
8. "The Lake House," $1.6 million
9. "Nacho Libre," $1.5 million
10. "A Scanner Darkly," $1.2 million

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- "Pirates of the Caribbean" is looking more like "Treasure Island."

Already a record-shattering blockbuster, Johnny Depp's sequel, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," earned $62.2 million in its second weekend, raising its 10-day total to $258.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The movie has quickly become the year's top-grossing film, rocketing past "X-Men: The Last Stand," which has taken in $232 million in eight weeks. The "Pirates" sequel has grossed an additional $125 million overseas.

"It's really fun when you're riding a comet like this," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which based the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies on its theme park attraction. "This thing is just unbelievable. It creates its own wake."

Sony's "Little Man," the Wayans brothers' slapstick farce about a pint-size thief masquerading as a baby, opened as the No. 2 movie with $21.7 million. The tale stars Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who co-wrote it with brother Keenen Ivory Wayans, the director.

Universal's comedy "You, Me and Dupree," starring Owen Wilson as a houseguest causing chaos for a buddy and his new bride (Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson), debuted at No. 3 with $21.3 million.

Hollywood's business dipped for the first time in two months. After eight straight weekends of rising revenues, overall receipts totaled $156 million, down 5 percent from the same weekend last year, when Depp also was at the top of the box office, with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Still, the second weekend gross for "Dead Man's Chest" topped the debut of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which opened with $56.2 million. "Dead Man's Chest" had the third-best second weekend ever, behind "Shrek 2" ($72.2 million) and "Spider-Man" ($71.4 million).

By next weekend, "Dead Man's Chest" should pass the $305 million domestic total rung up by its predecessor, 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Disney's Viane said.

"Dead Man's Chest" debuted with $135.6 million over the opening weekend, beating the previous record of $114.8 million set by "Spider-Man" in 2002.

Ending with a cliffhanger, "Dead Man's Chest" will be closely followed by a third "Pirates" movie due out next May, with Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and other co-stars on a voyage to rescue Depp's rakish pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow.

"Huge expectations. 'Pirates 2' is maybe the toughest act in box-office history to follow," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. " 'Pirates 3' is the definition of a predestined blockbuster."

After a strong start in narrow release the previous weekend, Warner Independent's sci-fi drug-addiction tale "A Scanner Darkly" expanded to more theaters and broke into the top 10 with $1.2 million. The movie, featuring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr., was shot in live action then painted over with digital animation.

melodyslove - July 18, 2006 04:15 AM (GMT)

An interview with Orlando and Keira from empireonline.com-thanks to cherry_glitter's LJ for the link. :)

From here:

http://www.empireonline.com/interviews_and...iew.asp?IID=555

QUOTE

Even buccaneers in the furthest oceans of the world will know by now that Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has made a kraken- sized splash at the box-office. But before the movie's crew headed off to toast their success with a warm flagon of grog, we caught up with them to talk about the making of the franchise's second chapter and what awaits on the horizon. British stars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley sat down together to talk "bastard" sword fights, invisible monsters and being left out of the theme-park ride.

How far do the two of you go back?

Keira: We did a couple of auditions together before Pirates, didn’t we?

Orlando: Yeah, we did.Yeah, don’t think we ever got any of them.Well, you did.

Keira: I know, yeah I did, didn’t I? I did, you didn’t!

Orlando: I turned it down; I didn’t want to do it. (Laughs)

What was it like revisiting these characters?

Keira: It was great. It was quite scary actually. I’ve never done a sequel before, and I’ve always said that I think any of the characters I’ve played, if I played them now, I’d play them completely differently to what I did. So it was weird trying to find continuity with the character that I played when I was 17. We actually had big problems because she was quite black-and-white in the first film — she was very straight laced and we couldn’t really see how to carry her on. So we went off into a grungier look for her, which was really exciting actually. I don’t know if there is actually any continuity from the first film but it was fun anyway.

Orlando: If was good for me too, yeah. The introduction of Bootstrap Bill Turner, who plays my father, was a really great new dynamic for me. I’ve got to get the girl, but I’ve also got to save my dad from a fate worse than death, being sort of condemned to Davy Jones’ crew at the bottom of the ocean. So it was something cool to play with.

Keira: When we did the first film, nobody thought it was going to work. We were doing a film based on a theme park ride, and a pirate film hadn’t worked in 50 years, and everyone was just going, “This is going to be awful.” So to come back and do a sequel to something that was such a surprise success was lovely.

Both of you have more action scenes this time…

Keira: I think for both of us, it is important to do as much of the action ourselves as possible. It’s really boring if you’re doing an action movie when you’re not really involved with the action. So we did a couple of weeks’ training before we started and then throughout we were with the stunt department.You pop in a couple of hours of sword training, fight with team work and basically learn the set-pieces as the movie goes along.

Keira, you don’t have to wear a corset this time. Was that a contract stipulation?

Keira: (Laughs) I love the idea that I could say that: ‘Yes, I’m only coming back if you don’t make me wear a corset.’ I did got a pair of pirate boots this time, which is definitely an advantage to the shoe and stocking routine, in the first movie, which I hated. Apparently little girls really responded to the more action-y side of Elizabeth from the first film, and so they decided to take her on that road. But no, I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with the kiss either, although I was very happy when I read that there was one.

Orlando: Which one was that? (Both laugh)

Which of you is the better with a sword? Rumour has it Keira’s pretty good…

Orlando: Yeah, and she knows how to kiss. (Pretends to be in a sulk) Me and Johnny are just fluff.

Keira: I swear I shot more sword fighting than what was in the movie, so I couldn’t have been as good as I thought I was!

Orlando: I’ll tell you what — the three-way sword fight was an absolute bastard to shoot. It took about two and half weeks. I suppose it was a nice set-piece in the movie but it was ridiculous doing that. We actually had a giant wheel and were in it and then on top of it. They had a giant bluescreen arm attached to the back of a truck and then dragged it down the hill. It was mad. A lot of work went into all of the sequences, but that one particularly. It’s quite spectacular.

How do you keep a straight face when Johnny Depp’s in full flow as Jack Sparrow?

Orlando: Just don’t look at Johnny!

Keira: Yeah, don’t look at Johnny! Ignore him, at all costs! He was actually quite nice, because he wouldn’t do the whole Jack Sparrow routine if the camera was on you. As soon as the camera was turned around, it was different. You couldn’t give him off-camera lines because you were laughing too much. I think there will be a lot of outtakes of everybody pissing themselves.

Orlando: The gag-reel will be good.

Keira: Yeah, the gag-reel will be very good. I just remember the crew standing around with tears running down their faces, because they were desperately trying to keep it in as we were filming. It was brilliant.

The bone-cage stunts look like they were pretty dangerous to do…

Orlando: We were actually inside the vine cage, which was hanging, and there was a wire hanging from a crane. We were told what was going to happen, and they just dropped the cage. We were terrified. Everyone’s stomachs leapt, I think a couple of people threw up, and it just started to swing. It was hilarious, terrifying and very much like we were on a theme park ride.

On the subject of theme park rides, have you been on the original Pirates Of The Caribbean one?

Keira: I haven’t been on the new one… it’s been redone, hasn’t it?

Orlando: I have. It was really good, they’ve got Johnny coming up three times! It’s quite interesting.

Keira: We’re not in it are we?

Orlando: No, I think we should speak to somebody about that.

Keira: We’ve been left out!

Orlando: I went on the ride for the first time last year, for the premiere of the first movie, and you kind of go, ‘Wow, this really isn’t that exciting.’ It’s a bit of a wet ride really.

Bill Nighy’s a natty dresser usually. How did he cope with wearing an unflattering motion-capture suit?

Keira: (Laughs) Yeah, he was wearing this really nasty grey tracksuit the whole time, with dots everywhere. He did say he wanted to do a pirate movie to get the big pirate hat, and there he is in a skin-tight grey tracksuit. I felt really sorry for him.

What was the hardest scene for each of you to do in part two?

Orlando: Mine was actually a sequence with Davy Jones where I’m peeking through the tentacles, because there weren’t any tentacles there. So it was kind of an odd thing to be doing.

Keira: Any of the scenes with the Kraken, when the Kraken was attacking the ship, because there was absolutely nothing there. It was mostly the director Gore, running around going, “I’m a tentacle, I’m a tentacle!” So that was a bit difficult. And he was trying to explain it to us, he’s like, “Yeah, you know, it’s just like a big squid.” It’s like, ‘Right, good, okay.’ So I think that was quite problematic.

How has fame changed your lives?

Keira: I’ve got a bigger trailer now, which is a real bonus. It does! It makes a difference, doesn’t it? I’ve got my own toilet and everything. It’s wonderful.

Orlando: You can have friends to stay.

Keira: Yeah!

Orlando: Going through airports is more interesting now than it used to be.

Keira: I had a great one actually. I went to the Toronto Film Festival because Pride & Prejudice was on there, but I had to get back, literally the next morning to be on the set for Pirates, so I couldn’t stay for the film, I had, no time. I did the red carpet in this very tight dress, and had to go to the airport straight away, in my red carpet dress. Looking a bit like Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot, tottering through the airport. It’s the one and only time I haven’t been stopped by security. So that was quite good.

What do you think of Keith Richards joining the cast for Pirates 3?

Orlando: Well, if he doesn’t kill himself falling out of a coconut tree…

Keira: It’ll be great!(Pause)We could have given something away there..

Are you Rolling Stones fans?

Keira: Yeah!

Orlando: Absolutely, who’s not? Can’t wait to see him. (To Keira) Are you in any of that stuff?

Keira: Yeah I am. You’re not though.

Orlando: No, I’m not. I’m going to be on set anyway though.Oops!

Hmm… Can you give us any other idea of what to expect story-wise in part three?

Both: No!!

Jesse - July 18, 2006 12:30 PM (GMT)

Who said we never learn anything here!! PIRATES: THE FACTS AND THE FICTION

QUOTE

Punishments were clearly defined and harsh: smoking in the hold without a cover on your pipe could get you forty lashes; for planning to desert his ship a pirate could expect to be marooned on a small island with one flask of water, a bottle of rum, one gun and one bullet.

Oh Bugger!!!

melodyslove - July 24, 2006 05:28 AM (GMT)

I don't remember seeing this anywhere before,so apologies if it's already been posted.

Visit Pirate Island on Google Earth and discover it's treasures!!From here:

http://www.discoverpirateisland.com/

Thanks to orlandonline.free.fr for the link.

Jesse - July 24, 2006 12:56 PM (GMT)

CLICK HERE for a short video clip of composer Hans Zimmer talking about the musical score for DMC.
Thanks to Orlando Bloom Multimedia for the link.

***

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" continued to smash records its third weekend out, becoming the first film ever to break 300 million dollars in just 16 days at North American theatres, industry figures showed. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

melodyslove - July 28, 2006 05:46 AM (GMT)

For those of you already on the fifth or sixth viewing,you might want to check these out! :bigwink:

Mistakes and bloopers from POTC:DMC from here:

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film5459

Plus,links to about a BILLION or so reviews of the movie here:

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Pirates+of+the...7s+Chest+(2006)

melodyslove - August 2, 2006 01:15 PM (GMT)

An interview with POTC:DMC scriptwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio from here:

http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/csdai...sioElliott.html

QUOTE

Our Creative Screenwriting Magazine feature interview with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest scripters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio was so overflowing with great material, we had to spill over into CS Weekly. Here the duo talks about twisting legends, killing your darlings, and much more!

Summer blockbusters with actual character development and a well-crafted story? Sounds like something out of a fairy tale. But that's just what Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have in mind every time they go to bat, from Aladdin to Shrek to this weekend's sequel to their swashbuckling adventure tale, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Joining forces once again with director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (not to mention the creative team at the Walt Disney Studios), Rossio and Elliott have crafted a new tale featuring everyone's favorite pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), who owes his soul to the keeper of the deep, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). Davy has come to collect, but Jack is determined to beat the devil. Of course, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are dragged out of their wedding and into the middle of the action -- but this time they may not think Jack is such a "good man" after all.

We had so much great material from these writers that it's spilled over from their feature interview in the new issue of Creative Screenwriting Magazine into this week's CS Weekly, to celebrate the opening of their Chest. Here's more storytelling wisdom (edited together from separate phone interviews) on creating surprises when crafting a sequel, the power of juxtaposition, and better storytelling through the use of 3x5 cards.

What kind of research did you do for the sequels and how did that influence the writing?
Terry Rossio: I think the most interesting research had to do with examining some familiar phrases or ideas out of the pirate landscape, most notably the Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones. The Flying Dutchman: nobody really knows who that captain is, or they don't really remember him, but there are different tales about that guy. There are very interesting romantic stories, like he could only step on land every 10 years and only then if he finds true love, that sort of thing.

With Davy Jones, everybody is familiar with the phrase but nobody really knew who he was. Was he a guy who shanghaied sailors? A bastardization of the devil? So we ended up taking the name, which didn't really have a story, and putting it to the story that didn't really have a name, and coming up with our version of those iconic ideas.

What are some character ideas and plot points that didn't work for this film, and why did they fall by the wayside?
Rossio: It really has to do with how many of them can fit in any one particular story. Pirates were very fascinated by the fact that they were outlaws and were going to eventually be hung. In reaction, they would get together and go through that whole process of judging themselves and putting themselves up to trial. I always thought that was a neat idea, and that there might be a way to use that for a narrative with a mock court -- maybe some information could be revealed in an interesting or creative way. It turned out that it just didn't fit anywhere. So that note card just sat there for over a year and never got used.

One idea that was kind of eerie: we had this notion of a tsunami at one point, where Will goes down and there's this ship sitting in the bay on the sand, and the bay has receded. Will knows that that means that a tsunami is coming and they all have to evacuate. This was before the tsunami that occurred in Indonesia. It had already fallen out of the movie, but it was weird that we had been researching that just before it happened.

You've indicated that a good movie needs to have more than enough ideas or note cards than can possibly fit. If you have more than enough information on the cards to fill the on- and off-screen stories, what dictates how you narrow that mass of information down?
Ted Elliott: There are things that -- depending on what the story point is and how it's told -- will register as more significant for the audience than others. So you think, "What is the single most significant thing we want the audience to understand after watching this scene?" and "How will what they understand, after watching the next scene, work cumulatively with what they already understand?" The point is, if we have two ideas and they may create for the audience ambiguity as to which is significant, you have to figure out a way to either use them both so that the one you need to be significant is or you have to say, "Okay, that one's not going to work. These two are in conflict. They're not telling the story properly to the audience."

There are a lot of cards that go up where you go, "If there's room for this." Meaning, even as you're suggesting it, it may not fit with what you're eventually going to do. But all of that stuff becomes valuable in case what you decided to do doesn't work. Then you can say, "Hey, remember that idea that we had that we didn't put in? What if we explored that for a little while and see where that takes us?"

Rossio: Every moment of a movie, for me, ought to be a clear and compelling situation, something that is untenable in its existence that demands resolution one way or another. If you can do a movie where every moment is a need-to-be-resolved situation, that's almost guaranteed to keep and sustain audience interest. So those situations as they're created become scenes or sequences, and the more interesting the situation or the more obvious that it needs to be in the movie, the easier it becomes a card and the easier it becomes to write.

How does theme play into your development of the story? Is it the glue that holds everything together or is it just a by-product of the process?
Rossio: For a story to be effective, we think of it as an exploration of a topic, which is slightly different than what's usually described as theme, but a theme invariably involves that or it comes into play. But if you take any topic and fully explore it through maybe polarizing characters around different aspects of the topic, it's really effective; then, when the different characters come together, you have interesting scenes. As the story unfolds, you can't help but make some kind of thematic statement because you've covered an interesting topic. You've explored it and through the resolution of the plot comes some understanding of what the film's point of view is relative to that topic.

In a sequel where the audience knows the characters, how do you both keep the characters the same so the audience doesn't feel cheated, yet have the characters go through significant changes so the audience feels satisfied?
Elliott: You take risks. The characters that were created in Pirates were fairly complex characters. I think that's part of its success. Particularly with Jack, but with all of them, people really responded to them. I remember there were early comparisons to Star Wars, and I kept saying, "You know, I don't remember that part in Star Wars where Luke hits Han over the head with an oar and leaves him to the stormtroopers." There was a little bit more to these characters. Elizabeth does some pretty ruthless things in order to save Will. And it was sort of just expanding on that.

But it was also taking a risk of taking the characters to a place where the audience is a little bit uncomfortable. You want the audience to respond, to be wondering. "Did that character do the right thing? Did that character do the wrong thing?" In approaching it that way, in saying, "Everything they do will be within the realm of the character that the audience knows, but we're going to create a plot that makes these characters do things that are unexpected or that people may not ever expect to see -- at least not in a Hollywood summer franchise blockbuster tent-pole movie." That's how you do it.

We've always said with the first movie we had low expectations and the element of surprise on our side. I really think it was the element of surprise that was part of the experience of that movie that audiences embraced so much -- that it was a surprise. If only we could have low expectations again. If only we could be completely below the radar and be the summer sleeper again. Unfortunately, that's gone, but we still have to deliver on the surprise.

You've spoken about the need to go someplace new with the characters. How are Will and Elizabeth's characters expanded for the sequels?
Rossio: There's an innocence to Will and Elizabeth in the first movie which is true for any romantic story -- that process of falling in love and coming together. So, naturally, in the second and third movies it has to get a little more sophisticated, a little more adult, where it's one thing to be in love but it's another one to actually get along, to communicate, to understand one another and to see whether or not each person has the same sort of moral compass. So it's, hopefully in its own way, just as romantic, but perhaps more mature.

What challenges did the almost casting of Keith Richards as Jack Sparrow's father create for Dead Man's Chest, and are there any plans for Jack's father to appear in the third film?
Rossio: I have a moratorium on Keith Richards questions. [laughs]

Elliott: There was never a plan for a Jack's father character to show up in the second movie 'cause we already had Bootstrap Bill. We knew that. Look for him in the third.

[Editor's note: Keith Richards signed on to play Sparrow, Sr. this week.]

In Dead Man's Chest you're dealing with dual storylines: the bombastic (visually and action-wise) storyline of Jack Sparrow vs. Davy Jones and the lower-key storyline of Will and Elizabeth's ongoing relationship and their wedding. How do you balance out those two storylines?
Rossio: Actually that's one of the more difficult assemblages: to pull off a film that has romance as well as some horrific elements as well as pure pratfall humor. There's a certain goofiness, a certain innocence to it, and then there's a certain kind of real drama that we go for. To include that all in one film is really tricky.

That's what Gore is particularly good at is in understanding how he can maintain a tone of the movie or a reality of the movie across those various (what might be dissident) tones. He's said, "The comedy always has to come out of people taking things very seriously." Characters don't need to make jokes, and they don't think they're being funny. If you're trying to pull a squid tentacle off somebody and slip, then you get frustrated and you pull harder. You slip again and get even more frustrated. That could land as funny. But for the character in the moment, they just have ever escalating levels of seriousness.

In terms of storylines, we trust the audience that if we show them eight different disconnected things at the beginning of Dead Man's Chest, we have faith that they are going to believe these things will connect. As long as they do ultimately come together and the audience's faith is rewarded, you can get away with it.

Elliott: When you first watch the movie, it appears to be two storylines, but in fact they join up very quickly. Ultimately, you're dealing with character relationships, which should all be dynamic and interesting, or you're dealing with more bombastic or adventure-style plot which all the characters are involved in. So, it's really not looking at it from the point of view that there's a Will and Elizabeth story, there's an A story and a B story, that's really not the way it works, although certainly it will appear that way to begin with.

How do you create a sense of closure for Dead Man's Chest even though you have more story to tell in the third film?
Rossio: The closure comes from a resolution of the thematic argument of the film. While there may be some plot issues still dangling, as long as the film makes a definitive statement in terms of the emotional story of some of the characters, there's a sense of it being complete. Ideally (knock on wood).

Elliott: What's really interesting is -- if there was no sequel after this, if there was no third movie, with the basic emotional moments and what happens at the end of this one -- I would be comfortable having it go out [like this]. We would have resolved the plot of Davy Jones differently, but, in terms of what happens with Jack and Will and Elizabeth and the conclusion of our movie, I feel comfortable that it would work whether you had a sequel coming up or not.

Jesse - August 5, 2006 08:45 AM (GMT)

Remember the discussion about the 'Pirates 2 ' gag reel that was shown at the ComicCon (where the blazes did we post that!), well Jim Hill Media has some images from it HERE

Jesse - August 10, 2006 04:46 PM (GMT)

From Variety.com

QUOTE

PARIS — Disney pic "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" took no prisoners when it docked on French shores Wednesday, pocketing the title of best opening day ever for an American film in Gaul, according to distrib Buena Vista Intl.

The second instalment of the "Pirates" franchise sold 693,023 tickets its first day here, grabbing over $4.4 million. The haul puts pic ahead of Hollywood blockbusters "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," which sold 641,000 tickets on day one, and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (606,591).

Pic took second place in the all-time record books, behind the second in the Besson franchise "Taxi," which man-aged to offload 801,922 tickets in its debut.

Exhibs attributed the success of the film to the strong buzz from overseas, as well as European territories; and the big-name recognition of stars Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. Some also said that the subject matter was a perfect summer distraction.

For French exhibs, the success of the flick during a heavy vacation period also heralds an exciting change in the industry.

"For years, the industry has been afraid to program blockbuster during the August vacation, because the wisdom has been that people are not going to the cinema," one Paris-based exhib posited. "While that's slowly been changing, a success like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' solidifies the idea that we can program — and make money from — big films during this time."

Another exhib said, however, that given it's somewhat long running time — 2 hours and 30 minutes — its ability to draw enough repeat auds to break any all-time records may be limited.

He predicted, however, that the film could clear $25 million in its first week, putting it ahead of this year's record-breaker, Gallic laffer "Les Bronzes 3: Friends Forever."

Keep an eye on that 'WorldWide Box Office Gross' link above! :flirt:

Jesse - August 12, 2006 08:02 AM (GMT)

There's an excellant report from the Comic Con 2006 HERE at Keep To The Code.

Posting the link because there'a a stash of pictures and great accompanying write-ups.

The guy playing Captain Jack an excellant look-a-like. Anyone know his name?

melodyslove - August 16, 2006 12:37 PM (GMT)

Interesting pics of Tia Dalma's costume here:

http://www.costumersguide.com/potc2_tia.shtml

Will's costume:

http://www.costumersguide.com/potc1_will.shtml

http://www.costumersguide.com/potc2_will.shtml

Captain Jack's:

http://www.costumersguide.com/potc1_jack.shtml

http://www.costumersguide.com/potc2_jack.shtml

Link to other movies(LOTR,Troy,Kingdom of Heaven,etc.):

http://www.costumersguide.com/costume_research.shtml

Thanks to ohjohnny.net for the link. :)

melodyslove - August 21, 2006 07:56 AM (GMT)

QUOTE

Disney and Buena Vista Home Entertainment are planning to release 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, in both single and two-disc collector's edition flavors on December 5.

The single-disc edition will include a pair of writer commentary tracks and 'Bloopers of the Caribbean.' The collector's edition touts 8 hours of material (film included) and should consist of the extras available on the single-disc edition along with a plethora of featurettes, a look at pirate lore and more. We should have a clearer picture of the entire extras list shortly.

'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' will carry a MAP of $19.95, while 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Collector's Edition)' will be five bucks steeper at $24.95.

ETA:You can also go here and do some serious voting for a number of POTC:DMC-related nominations:

http://www.spiketv.com/interact/polls/scream2006/index.jhtml

Jesse - August 24, 2006 07:59 AM (GMT)

Pearl Black Vodka Added to Johnny Depp's Dead Man's Chest

QUOTE

Johnny Depp and his Pirates of the Caribbean cast mates recently added Pearl Black super premium vodka to their treasure chests to commemorate the continued success of their latest blockbuster on the high seas, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. To date, the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, has grossed a record-setting $400 million at the box office domestically.
It's no coincidence that the stars who once seemed fearful of the "Black Pearl" didn't hesitate to take in Pearl Black -- vodka that would befit even Captain Jack Sparrow himself. "In fantasy, the Black Pearl is a curse. In reality, Pearl Black is a pleasure. Luxco wanted Mr. Depp and his movie mates to have a gratifying experience with a Black Pearl. We were honored each accepted our gift to toast to their continued success," explained Luxco Executive Marketing Manager, Todd Nickodym. St. Louis-based Luxco imports Pearl vodkas.

Luxco presented its super premium vodka to Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Jonathan Pryce and Naomie Harris, as well as Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinksi.

Headquartered in St. Louis and founded in 1958, Luxco is a leading importer, bottler and marketer of quality wines and spirits. Its Pearl brand portfolio includes Original Pearl Vodka (Pearl Black), Pearl Lo Coco and Pearl Pomegranate.

Pearl vodkas are imported from Canada by Luxco. The super-premium vodkas are produced from the finest ingredients including soft winter wheat and crystal pure water from the Northern Canadian Rockies, and are expertly hand- crafted in micro-batches to maintain the quality, taste and integrity.

Yahoo News

Jesse - August 25, 2006 08:09 AM (GMT)

ILM Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll Discusses Pirates of the Caribbean

A very long interview with John Knoll from ABOUT.com

It's three pages long! :blink: So, I'll get back to it later!

Jesse - September 6, 2006 07:04 PM (GMT)

Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Mans Chest is now the 3rd BIGGEST WORLDWIDE GROSSING MOVIE OF ALL TIME

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

Details HERE at Box Office Mojo

Keep going to the cinema! Who knows if we keep buying tickets it may still be showing when AWE is released! :lol:

melodyslove - September 8, 2006 08:54 AM (GMT)

POTC:DMC goofs and trivia,from here:

http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Caribbean-De...8?ie=UTF8#goofs

QUOTE

Trivia

The Black Pearl is the only ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and its sequel which operate under power. All others, except for the "Interceptor" from the first movie, are built atop other ships such as barges with only the portions seen by the cameras completed.

The gigantic wheel upon which the sword fight between Sparrow, Turner and Norrington takes place weighed at 1800 pounds and stood at 18 feet tall.

For the film's release, the Walt Disney Company redesigned the Pirates of the Caribbean rides in Walt Disney World and Disneyland to feature captain Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, and an appearance by the films' supernatural character Davy Jones as part of the attraction and will be featured beginning on the film's opening day.

In order to get an actual surprised reaction, the small kissing scene between Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann was cut out of Orlando Bloom's script.

In June 2006, the "Flying Dutchman" set ship was towed to Castaway Cay, Disney Cruise Line's private island, where it was displayed in promotion release of the movies.

Davy Jones and his 18-member crew of the Flying Dutchmen were entirely computer-generated, except for Bootstrap Bill. Bill Nighy wore a dark gray motion-capture suit with dozens of reference marks on his face and body while performing. ILM has refined the m

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