Joining Johnny: The Cast Assembles

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 9:05 am {no comments}

Joining Johnny: The Cast Assembles

Jerry Bruckheimer, Rob Marshall, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio all knew the great benefits of developing new characters and continuing the arcs of pre-existing ones, but what was clear from the get-go was that Captain Jack Sparrow would remain, as ever, the once and future Captain Jack Sparrow.

“Well, you know,” adds Rossio, “Jack Sparrow is one of those characters who doesn’t change; the audience doesn’t want him to change, and I don’t want him to change. Instead, he affects change in the characters around him.”

Indeed, that aspect of the film was just one of the lures for Penélope Cruz, an Academy Award–winning star of international repute, as well as the notion of reuniting with Johnny Depp, with whom she had previously appeared in “Blow” some years ago. And it didn’t hurt that Cruz was already an admirer of the entire franchise. “I’m a very big fan of the first three movies,” she confesses, “and of what Johnny did in those movies. This is a great adventure for any actor to be a part of. It’s an adventure every day; you can never be bored.”

Marshall had worked with Penélope Cruz before, on “Nine” in 2009, and they have become close friends. He admits that when he first mentioned the idea to Cruz of taking the role of Angelica in “On Stranger Tides,” he wasn’t sure how the Oscar®-winning actress would react.

“I saw Penélope in that role immediately,” he says. “I couldn’t think of anybody else. It had to be an actress who could go toe-to-toe with Johnny and match him on every level. There had to be a sensuality to the character; there had to be humor, strength—a female pirate who is as smart, crafty and as clever as Jack Sparrow. Angelica needed to be all those things and, honestly, Penélope was the only choice.

“I remember asking Penélope when we were in a restaurant in London,” says Marshall. “John DeLuca, executive producer, and I took her to dinner and I didn’t bring it up until the end of the meal and I kept thinking, ‘I wonder whether she will be interested…’ And I tentatively said, ‘Penélope, would you ever be interested in the idea of doing “Pirates”…’ and I didn’t even finish the words. She jumped up—in the restaurant—and screamed, ‘I would love to!’

“You see this with great actors; they want variety in their careers and they don’t want to play the same thing over and over. She was so thrilled, as I was, at the idea of doing a classic pirate adventure, a film that’s for families as well as everyone else. This was something completely different for her, and she embraced it,” says Marshall.

For Cruz, it was a reunion with both Depp and Rob Marshall, who directed her in “Nine,” for which she received an Academy Award® nomination. “Two of the greatest experiences I’ve had working with people in this industry were with Johnny and Rob,” says Cruz. “Rob can handle huge amounts of pressure and always be a gentleman to everybody. He’s a very special human being, and I think anyone you ask will tell you the same thing. Johnny and I really loved working together 10 years ago, and I’m so happy to be around him again. He’s so humble, smart and one of the funniest people I know. His talent is incredible, and he’s another gentleman, like Rob. The more you work in this business, you just want to be around nice people, and they are on the top of the list for that.”

“Angelica had a relationship in the past with Jack Sparrow, but he betrayed her and broke her heart,” explains Cruz. “Now she enjoys looking for revenge. I think she’s still in love with him, but she cannot admit it, not even to herself, that she still has these feelings. Angelica has the mind of a pirate, the daughter of the biggest and most dangerous pirate of all time, and she’s a great manipulator, a great liar and a great actress in life. She can really trick people, but she’s a very clean soul with a good heart. Her main purpose in life is to try and help her father. Angelica has hope that she can save him, repair all the damage that he’s done. And she needs Jack Sparrow, as he needs her, to get to the Fountain of Youth, where Angelica hopes to save her father’s soul.”

“It’s a kind of fevered love which is also beyond hatred,” says Johnny Depp of Captain Jack and Angelica’s relationship. Notes Geoffrey Rush, “Having Penélope on the film is absolutely fantastic, because I’ve always felt that it would be great for there to be a wild, erratic, deeply attractive, sexy female pirate that’s Jack Sparrow’s match. She’s fiery, very feisty and very precise in her work.”

For the challenging role of history’s most notorious pirate, Bruckheimer and Marshall turned to an actor whose remarkable career in film and television—which has now spanned nearly 50 years—has been hotter than ever since his thunderously acclaimed performance as Al Swearengen in HBO’s western series “Deadwood.” “Ian McShane is a consummate actor,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer. “He’s brilliant and he’s done it all. He’s won all kinds of accolades for his acting ability, and that makes it so much more fun for a director and for an audience to see people who are the best at their craft.”

Adds Marshall, “Johnny Depp, Jerry Bruckheimer and I sat down with a large list of actors, and when we went through the list and we got to Ian McShane, it was immediately clear that he was Blackbeard. He can play something evil, but there’s always humor behind it as well. He just has his own fresh take on things.”

“Blackbeard is probably the most infamous pirate who ever lived,” notes McShane. “There’s a legion of stories about him, and whether they’re true or not, he’s now part of pirate mythology. I was impressed by the script, which is very funny and charming.”

McShane was also keen to work with Rob Marshall, noting that “I think the phrase to describe Rob would be ‘charmingly relentless,’ which is a great quality if you’re directing a huge movie like this. Rob has a steely determination combined with an honest, personal charm, which is great.”

“The beauty of the character of Blackbeard,” reflects Johnny Depp on Captain Jack’s nemesis in ‘On Stranger Tides,’ “is that, on the surface, he seems to be a rational man. But then, the more you get to know him, the more you realize he’s a stone-cold killer without an ounce of heart. He would screw over anyone and everyone to get to his objective, which is what makes him so dangerous. And I don’t think there’s a better choice than Ian McShane, certainly, to play him.”

Penélope Cruz was anxious to explore the very unorthodox father-daughter dynamic between Blackbeard and Angelica. “Angelica doesn’t want to admit that she cannot trust her father. “She cannot confront that, she cannot accept it. It’s too painful for her, so she keeps finding justifications for everything he does. She keeps fighting him so that he would stop killing. She wants to give him a chance to change and keeps fighting for that. Her mission is to change her father, and she cannot confront the fact that she can’t trust him.”

Box-Office: Pirates Rides Smaller ‘Tides’

Filed under Pirates Box Office Results, Pirates Facts by on May 23, 2011 at 12:01 am {no comments}

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger TidesPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides swooped in with the top-grossing weekend of the year so far. The supernatural swashbuckler claimed an estimated $90.1 million at 4,155 locations, edging out Fast Five’s $86.2 million launch. That was also the 12th highest-grossing May opening ever, but, since close to half of On Stranger Tides’ gross was from 3D presentations at a record 2,747 locations (and due to today’s general ticket prices), its estimated attendance level would rank 27th.

Relative to its predecessors, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides sank: At World’s End drew $114.7 million on its first weekend in May 2007 (not including $13.2 million in Thursday night previews), while Dead Man’s Chest raked in a then-record $135.6 million opening weekend back in July 2006. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, those grosses would be the equivalent of $131 million and $163 million, respectively. Since the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was the franchise establisher, its early grosses were in a lower league, though still bustling ($70.6 million in its five-day launch, or $92 million adjusted). On Stranger Tides’s start was also less than that of the last Johnny Depp spectacle Alice in Wonderland, which began with $116.1 million.

On the plus side, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ opening held better relative to its predecessor than Shrek Forever After’s did on the same weekend last year. On Stranger Tides was always destined to debut lower than At World’s End and Dead Man’s Chest, given the mixed reaction to those movies and how the audience lost interest with At World’s End. Sealing the deal was On Stranger Tides’ lower key approach: it came off as just another Pirates movie in its marketing and lacked stand-out visual and character moments. Distributor Walt Disney Pictures’ exit polling indicated that 54 percent of On Stranger Tides’ audience was male and 54 percent was over 25 years old (the age 26-34 group was most represented at 24 percent, followed by 18-25 with 22 percent).

Revealing the True Nature of all the Characters

Filed under At World's End Production Notes by on April 26, 2011 at 2:14 pm {no comments}

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Main Characters.

In the aftermath of the “Dead Man’s Chest” sweep of worldwide box offices, the stars of the film were still processing its impact. “It’s shocking you know,” admits Johnny Depp. “I’m still sort of amazed that so many people in so many corners of the globe embraced the films and Captain Jack, and in a lot of ways just sort of claimed ownership of the character. Nothing like this has ever happened to me, but what’s happened with `Pirates’ hasn’t happened to many people. It’s very, very moving and emotional, the idea that people feel this very strong connection with Captain Jack. You know, seeing little kids dressed up as the character, talking like him. It’s just amazing.”

Depp was enthusiastic to pursue the development of Captain Jack’s journey in “At World’s End.” “When we last saw Jack in `Dead Man’s Chest,’” Depp explains, “he was swatting his way into the mouth of Kraken, and when we pick him up again in `At World’s End’ he’s in Davy Jones’ Locker, which is kind of beyond the idea of purgatory, a kind of hell in which he’s surrounded by himself. I thought it was a brilliant idea of taking this guy and not have him face his demons, but rather the various sides of his personality.”

“It’s an interesting idea that Jack Sparrow has an honest streak that will likely be his undoing,” adds screenwriter Ted Elliott. “He says it in the first movie, it actually does happen in the second one, and in this third film Jack has said, in effect, look, I’ve given up on the whole honest streak thing because we all saw where that one led to. That becomes Jack’s struggle throughout… what are you willing to do to get what you want?”

“Johnny Depp is a very surprising, unusual and unique actor,” adds Jerry Bruckheimer, “who creates memorable, original characters that audiences just fall in love with. Captain Jack was unlike anything that audiences had seen on screen before, a drunken, swashbuckling character who can barely stand up sometimes, yet is so clever and smart that he outwits everybody around him. And Johnny does this on every movie. Whether it’s Willy Wonka in `Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ J.M. Barrie in `Finding Neverland’ or `Donnie Brasco,’ he creates something so indelible that you can’t quite put your finger on how he invents that magic.”

Geoffrey Rush, an unabashed enthusiast for the three films, was thoroughly delighted to once again transform himself into Captain Barbossa. “I’ve always thought that `Dead Man’s Chest’ and `At World’s End’ are really one big film, with a cliffhanger interval,” he notes. “I say that quite selfishly, because I don’t do anything in the second film. I’m dead. But I have a fabulous sort of curtain line at the end of the movie. But `At World’s End’ galvanizes 15 major plot lines that have all been simmering through the first and second movies, and kind of brings them home.

“There’s a shift in Barbossa’s character in the third film,” Rush continues. “I think that in `Dead Man’s Chest,’ Davy Jones becomes the villain or dark force at the center of the film. And with Barbossa being absent, when he re-emerges, he actually comes back as a kind of politician, which is great for me because it meant I didn’t have to play the same flavors, or work off the same dramatic palette as in the first film, which was pure rivalry with Jack. I mean, that’s certainly still there, but my job in `At World’s End’ is to make sure that the romantic true heritage of the pirates being the vagabond brotherhood at sea maintains its identity against this rather ruthless corporate world of the East India Trading Company that wants to stamp it out. So I become an arch manipulator, and I think Barbossa’s familiar qualities of betraying people and forcing them to do things they don’t particularly want to do, is how he works.”

“We’re all still in character,” adds Orlando Bloom, “but thankfully, the character development is really great in the third film. Will Turner definitely has a few more edges. In the second movie, the major conflict for Will is whether to choose between his father or his love for Elizabeth. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to rescue his father, Bootstrap Bill, and he also wants to be with the girl he loves, but the two are opposite magnets that push away from each other.

“By the time `At World’s End’ begins,” Bloom continues, “Will has embraced the pirate code that he so hated at the start of `The Curse of the Black Pearl,’ to pursue his own purposes. A promise has been made that he will save his father’s life, and Will will try and do everything he can to honor that vow…not forgetting that he still loves Elizabeth, and wants to get her back into his life. The third movie reveals the true nature of all the characters, and it’s great to go on a journey with Will where you’re not quite certain which direction he will turn to.”

“There’s a certain amount of guilt that Elizabeth feels about having delivered Jack to the Kraken at the end of `Dead Man’s Chest,’” says Keira Knightley of her increasingly strong minded and determined character, “but I think that was something that had to be done at the time. But then she finds out that actually, what they really need to do is save him. Elizabeth is certainly more than the girl who stands in the corner by this point in the story. It’s been great to play a girl who’s strong and interesting, and isn’t afraid of a fight.”

“Keira became a woman through the course of making these three films,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer, “and Elizabeth is a character who has an enormous arc. She starts out as a kind of spoiled rich governor’s daughter, and through the course of the story becomes a woman who bucks convention and becomes as fierce and competitive a fighter as Will and Captain Jack.”

Bill Nighy was also delighted to take Davy Jones more than a few steps further in the third film, and again infusing the devilish character with a large dollop of recognizable humanity. “Davy is now in service to the East India Trading Company and Lord Cutler Beckett, certainly the first time he’s been in service to anybody. He’s no longer the free lord of the seas. In `At World’s End,’ you see how love and betrayal wrecked Davy’s life and ruined his existence. He just wants Calypso, and peace from this terrible love pain. He suffers in a major way. Davy is a lover, and he’s been deeply, deeply hurt, devastated by the loss of this woman. People like Davy who never connected with anyone, ever, and then do and lose it, cleave for all time. And these are dangerous men, you know, they’re almost certainly emotionally damaged. It’s a central fact of Davy Jones’ life that he’s never getting over it.”

“I have had a long life with Gore already, and it’s a very pleasant life,” smiles Stellan Skarsgård, who returns as Will Turner’s cursed father, Bootstrap Bill. “And it’s surprising because when you work on a production this big, you would think that working in front of the camera would be very different from the kind of independent films I’ve done before. But it isn’t, because it’s very intimate around the camera. You work basically in the same way, or you’re free to try things. Gore is not only a technical director, but he’s very interested in actors and to see what actors can produce. It’s one of the reasons I wanted this job…because when I saw `The Curse of the Black Pearl,’ I saw a bunch of actors who enjoyed themselves and obviously had a lot of fun.”

Bootstrap Bill also continues on a progressive arc throughout the third film. “It’s pretty sad, because his deterioration has gone quite far. He’s already falling apart, and only has glimpses of remembering and vague ideas about his relationships to people. As with other crewmen of the Flying Dutchman, Bill is becoming more and more a part of the ship, losing his humanity.”

Explains the compulsively witty Jack Davenport of his character, James Norrington, “Where you left me off at the end of the second film, I was still modeling homeless person chic…but with Davy Jones’ heart in hand. I well know that I managed to give the heart to probably the last person on earth or indeed the high seas that I should have given it to, it’s now allowed me in the third film to once again dress like a Mardi Gras float. I’m much more comfortable in blues and yellows, and I once again sport the deeply flattering white wig. So joy is unconfined all around.”

On a somewhat more serious note, Davenport says, “In `At World’s End,’ Norrington comes to realize that he’s made a terrible mistake, and he has to live with that. In terms of his feelings for Elizabeth, he’s not the same swooning chap that he was in the first film, which I think is a good thing in terms of deepening the character. She broke Norrington’s heart, very embarrassingly and very publicly. Subsequently, I don’t think he harbors any great illusions about them sailing off into the sunset together. In the third film, he looks on rather helplessly at the gigantic mess he’s created, and he has some opportunity for redemption.”

Tom Hollander, the charming Englishman who plays the distinctively uncharming Lord Cutler Beckett, was also dazzled by the success of “Dead Man’s Chest.” “Being in the third biggest grossing film of all time, I felt like it was as if I’d been standing next to the man who discovered penicillin,” jokes the actor. “It was thrilling, a fantastic feeling. Being a part of something which people absolutely love is just wonderful. It’s been quite a tough job, but amazing as well.”

In the third film, Beckett’s cold-bloodedness ascends to even more dastardly levels. “Davy Jones can be seen as the main villain of `Dead Man’s Chest,’ but Beckett becomes his boss in `At World’s End,’ so technically speaking, I’m on the top of the heap of villainy,” adds Hollander. “Davy Jones’ heart is my secret weapon, what’s known in show business as `leverage.’ Because he who has the heart of Davy Jones controls the seas. So even though Beckett is physically unintimidating to Davy Jones, he has his heart, which although a gloopy, nasty, smelly thing, gives him all the power.

Next Page – Chapter 4: Some New Faces Aboard