On Stranger Tides: Returning Actors

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 8:57 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Returning Actors

Returning for the fourth time as Hector Barbossa is Geoffrey Rush, who in the previous “Pirates” films had created one of the most wickedly beloved characters of the series. “I was very excited when I heard that there was going to be a fourth film because I love working with Johnny,” says Rush. “I find the Jack Sparrow-Barbossa ongoing conflict very delightful to engage in. And Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio seem to constantly come up with something new. You know, I thought that after the first three—in which they’d explored every possibility from the world of swashbuckling, including buried treasure, the Aztec curse, and big, Wagnerian dimensions of sea monsters, gods and goddesses, and the East India Trading Company—that there would be nothing else left about the Golden Age of Piracy, or the mythology associated around it, for them to write about. But I hadn’t thought about Blackbeard… or mermaids!

“The other thing that is very pleasing to me as an actor,” continues Rush, “is that Barbossa has been increasingly revealed in each successive film. And in ‘On Stranger Tides,’ by the very fact that, deep in his nature, Barbossa is a very calculating survivor, he’s got himself onto what he thinks is a very satisfying pension plan: because he’s not getting any younger, he’s joined forces with King George and has become a privateer. In the third film, he had already revealed more of his devious, self-serving politician-type qualities, and not just being a mangy, old pirate.”

“Even when Captain Jack and Barbossa are on the same side,” notes Johnny Depp, “they’re always on opposite sides somehow. I always felt like these two characters bicker like a couple of old housewives at a bridge club, just picking each other apart by the tiniest little morsel and detail. That’s how Geoffrey and I have approached it from day one, and he’s most definitely a worthy opponent. Geoffrey is a fantastic actor, who’s constantly investigating the possibilities of a scene. It’s always fresh, always new, always interesting with Geoffrey.”

Geoffrey Rush adds, “Let’s just say that Jack and Barbossa think of themselves as an old married couple. If these two could actually collaborate and not lock horns all the time, they would be the most fantastic, unstoppable team. But they’re worlds apart because Barbossa is purely a strategic thinker, but not the brightest person, I should think. Jack bobs along the river of life, improvising, taking huge daring risks which always pay off for him, even if he’s being blown from one ship to another. He always lands and ends up looking like Bugs Bunny leaning against the mast. And it will ever thus be so, so that’s a really fantastic actorial dynamic to engage with.”

Also returning to the “Pirates” fold, as classic sea salt Joshamee Gibbs, is Kevin R. McNally, now a veteran of all four “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. “When they came and asked me to do another ‘Pirates’ film,” McNally confesses, “I was surprised, because all those years ago when we started, I never, for a moment, thought we’d still be making them! It’s a real thrill, because it’s very rare in features that you get a chance to revisit characters and have a look at them again, particularly when you’ve got writers who are very keen to bring out some new aspects to the characters and not just trot out the same stuff time and again. It’s a wonderful, exciting plot that Mr. Gibbs is involved with from the beginning, which is really enjoyable.”

On Stranger Tides: The Visual World

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On Stranger Tides: The Visual World

“We definitely want to take the audience on a journey beyond and different than what they’ve seen in the previous ‘Pirates’ movies,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer. “With ‘On Stranger Tides,’ we have the great director of photography Dariusz Wolski, who has done all three previous ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films and, this time, works for the first time in digital 3D. We also have a brilliant Academy Award®–winning production designer, John Myhre, who was brought in by Rob Marshall, and we’ve filmed in all-new locations ranging from Hawaii to the Caribbean to London.”

For Myhre, the task to design the fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” epic was literally a dream come true. “Pirates of the Caribbean is just my favorite ride at Disneyland. I think I’ve been on the ride every year since it opened in 1967. I grew up in Seattle, but my family came down once a year to Disneyland.”

As soon as Rob Marshall was announced as director for “On Stranger Tides,” Myhre admits that he “literally started jumping around my living room like an 8-year-old boy.” The reason was that he had already collaborated with Marshall on all three of the director’s previous features, winning Oscars® for his dynamic re-creation of the Jazz Age in “Chicago” and an astounding evocation of Kyoto, almost entirely on California locations, for “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

Before filming began, Marshall, his longtime collaborator John DeLuca and Production Designer Myhre went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride but, this time, were able to stop and examine details as research for “On Stranger Tides.” “Rob and I are both fans of all the previous ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies,” notes Myhre, “but it’s fun to come in with a new creative team, because you have a chance to shake things out and bring your own thoughts to it. We wanted to bring a certain theatricality to ‘On Stranger Tides,’ which is very character-driven. We’re also expanding the ‘Pirates’ world by opening the film in London of the mid-1700s, then moving on to the islands, jungles and beaches of the Caribbean.”

Explains Myhre, “The film kind of divides into three chapters: the opening in London, the middle section on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and the last third is a trek through the jungle in search of the Fountain of Youth. Looking for those thick, dense, gorgeous jungles brought us to Kauai and Oahu in Hawaii, then a huge set for the mermaid sequence in Los Angeles, on to Puerto Rico for a tiny island and historic Spanish fort, and finally to the United Kingdom for London exteriors and a large number of sets built at Pinewood Studios.”

Joining Myhre to manifest ideas, concepts and dreams into three-dimensional reality were Set Decorator Gordon Sim, who shared his Academy Award® for “Chicago” and nomination for “Nine,” U.S. Supervising Art Director Tomas Voth, U.K. Supervising Art Director Gary Freeman, and a huge team of designers, draftsmen and artists on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the “Pirates” shoot.

On Stranger Tides: The Look of the Characters

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On Stranger Tides: The Look of the Characters

Captain Jack Sparrow, Angelica, Hector Barbossa, Blackbeard, Gibbs, Philip, Syrena and about a thousand other characters in “On Stranger Tides” represent a synergistic collaboration of (first and foremost) the actors who portray them and then the filmmakers and dozens of others who contribute to their wardrobe, hair, makeup and props.

The estimable Penny Rose, for the fourth time, combed the globe to appropriately costume not only the protagonists and supporting players of “On Stranger Tides,” but the hundreds of extras as well. Says Jerry Bruckheimer, “The devil is in the details, and Penny is as obsessed with the tiny elements as she is with the big picture. There’s really nobody else like her in her very specialized field.”

A creative hurricane, the British-born, multilingual Rose, along with her key associates (primarily Associate Costume Designer John Norster and Assistant Costume Designer Margie Fortune), left no detail unattended to. “When you’ve already done three,” says Rose, “there’s a kind of familiarity and a great sense of fun about doing a fourth. But we’ve got some new ingredients.”

In a pirate movie, dealing with water on a daily basis as well as a lot of stunts, results in a huge costume-manufacturing undertaking. Rose had 700 costumes made in Rome for all the background players. The busy bootmaker and hatmaker were also based in Italy.

Explains Rose, “I can’t ever have two pirates standing together in the same fabric or the same coat in the same color, so we go to Florence and buy 1,700 different fabrics. Our buttons come from a funny little shop in Paris, and I think, in one morning, we chose 4,800 buttons because I don’t want anyone to have the same buttons as somebody else. A very clever guy with a foundry makes our buckles, and since he also makes beautiful leather wares, he makes some of our belts and baldricks. Most of the pirate sashes are made with thin, Madras-style Indian cottons. We have a dye shop and try to use vegetable and fruit dying so that it looks authentic for the period. Then a lot of pieces go into the cement mixer with a few stones to break them down and age them properly. Then we take cheese graters and other methods to them to break them down even more. We wreck costumes for a living here.

“But the costumes are constructed absolutely authentically,” insists Rose. “There are no modern gimmicks within them. You’ll find no zippers or Velcro on these costumes!”

Since, as Johnny Depp put it, “…old Captain Jack found himself long ago,” there was little need to tamper too much with the character’s now-iconic look. Yes, his dreadlocks have gotten longer, some have grayed, others lightened by the relentless sun of the Caribbean. And yes, somewhere along the line, he’s acquired a mysterious “x” scar on his left cheek and a gold tooth embedded with a black pearl (replacing one which is now dangling from his bandana). But the fundamental look established in “The Curse of the Black Pearl” is essentially intact.

“There is something special about creating a costume that is now worn by kids everywhere on Halloween,” says Penny Rose, “but I really can’t take credit, can I? I mean, it’s Mr. Depp’s rendering of Captain Jack that’s caught the imagination of everybody. We do have a new blue vest for Captain Jack, though,” she adds. “We thought the vest was a bit boring, and maybe Jack had stolen something along the line, so he’s got a very nice silk vest now. And we have 80 of Captain Jack’s head scarves, because we never want to run out.
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On Stranger Tides: Onto London and Back in Time

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On Stranger Tides: Onto London and Back in Time

“One of the most exciting aspects of ‘On Stranger Tides,’” says Jerry Bruckheimer, “is that, for the first time, we have a London setting for part of the story, rather than the jungles, oceans and colonial outposts of the Caribbean. It really gives the film an entirely different look and feeling.”

Although the venerable Pinewood Studios outside of London would provide John Myhre, U.K. Supervising Art Director Gary Freeman and their mammoth art department with a gigantic playground in which to build their sets, some of the region’s most heralded historical buildings and other sites would also host the “On Stranger Tides” production. So ambitious was the effort to create the physical world of the film, the U.K. art department for the film numbered six art directors, five draftsmen and concept, graphic and storyboard artists. Construction Manager Andy Evans’ department included 62 carpenters, 29 painters, 71 plasterers, 36 riggers and 14 sculptors…not surprising when one considers that the production built huge sets on five different Pinewood soundstages, including the 007 Stage, the largest such facility in Europe, and a large exterior backlot set as well.

The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England, is an extraordinary collection of historic buildings dating from the late 17th to the mid 18th centuries—with its own piratical connections—which essentially became a backlot for more than three weeks of filming. The building standing in for the Old Bailey courthouse in the film is actually Sir Christopher Wren’s magnificent Painted Hall, which was partially financed with funds confiscated by the Crown from Captain Kidd’s booty after he was hung at Execution Dock across the Thames from the complex in Blackwall.

During actual filming, a huge blue screen was situated, with the image of Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral and sailing ship masts “painted” in by artists from Visual Effects Supervisor Charles Gibson’s department. “We needed a really wonderful opening establishing shot of deep in the heart of London,” notes John Myhre, “so we used the lower level of the buildings of the Old Royal Naval College for our extras, carriages and horses, but everything above the first level painted in through visual effects.” This included replacing the Painted Hall’s weathervane with a digital re-creation of Lady Justice, who strides atop the Old Bailey, holding a sword in one hand, the scales of justice in the other. A scene was actually filmed inside of Wren’s Painted Hall of Captain Jack being unceremoniously dragged through the entrance hall of St. James Palace by Royal Guards.

A huge swath of the Old Royal Naval College, including the exteriors of the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, Grand Square, Queen Mary Court and buildings which currently house the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music, were also utilized for the film’s thrilling carriage-chase sequence. Completely obscuring the modern pavement were copious amounts of realistic mud, with more than 500 costumed extras, 25 period carriages (85 percent of which were originals rather than replicas), 50 horses and untold crew members, from Jerry Bruckheimer and Rob Marshall onward, getting realistically filthy in the process, up to their ankles in muck. Trinity College also provided the company with often marvelously incongruous background music to the exciting goings-on, including jazz and modernistic twelve-tone.

A delightful sidebar to the filming in Greenwich was an unexpected event that became international news overnight. During the shoot at the Old Royal Naval College, 9-year-old Beatrice Delap, a bright little student at Meridian Primary School—spitting distance from the filming locale—sent Johnny Depp a hand-written letter with the following missive:

“Captain Jack Sparrow, at Meridian primary school we are a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we’re a right handful but we’re having trouble mutinying against the teachers. We’d love it if you could come and help. From Beatrice Delap, aged nine, a budding pirate”.

About a week later, Beatrice and her classmates were called into the auditorium, the students fearing a tongue-lashing or worse for some nefarious playground incidents. Instead, unannounced to anyone but the school’s principal, in strode Johnny Depp, fully attired as Captain Jack, on a lunch break from filming at the ORNC along with a few other crew members—including the film’s Oscar®-winning makeup designer, Joel Harlow—suitably attired as fellow buccaneers. For 15 minutes, the children and teachers were mesmerized by the presence of the iconic character and his creator, who spoke, sang and danced for the assemblage.

Recreating both the exterior and interior of St. James Palace in “On Stranger Tides” required the seamless melding of shooting at Hampton Court Palace for Captain Jack’s surprise arrest by Royal Guards, then the interior of the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich as the pirate is literally dragged by soldiers to King George II’s lavish dining room, followed by a built set piece of the St. James Palace exterior built at the ORNC. The king’s dining room, however, was in fact a splendid set on R Stage at Pinewood Studios.

“That becomes an amazing action sequence, and for that, you need to control the environment completely,” notes John Myhre. “When you have Captain Jack swinging on chandeliers and throwing chairs through 18th-century windows, you need to build it.”
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On Stranger Tides: The Queen Anne’s Revenge

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On Stranger Tides: The Queen Anne's Revenge

“It’s always a thrill, and very exciting, to be on a pirate ship,” says Jerry Bruckheimer. “I think every kid wants to be a pirate, and working on these movies, we all have the chance to live our dreams.” Even if that pirate ship is a floating nightmare. Imposing, terrifyingly beautiful, a brutal beast of the sea, the Queen Anne’s Revenge is Blackbeard’s vessel, and an extension of his own dark vision of life…and death.

Director Rob Marshall notes, “The Queen Anne’s Revenge is an incredibly evil vessel: It’s made of the skulls and bones of Blackbeard’s victims. It’s been prophesied that Blackbeard will die soon, so there is also a sense of doom on the ship. It’s a majestic pirate ship, so it was absolutely thrilling to sail.”

“The scale of it was unbelievable, and the craftsmanship was amazing,” comments actor Stephen Graham, who filmed many of his scenes aboard the craft. “It’s all hand-painted, hand-crafted, and it’s like being at Disneyland every single day.”

“How fabulous to work on a pirate movie and get to design a ship,” enthuses John Myhre. “We were handed the Black Pearl which was redesigned and built by Rick Heinrichs, the production designer of the second and third ‘Pirates’ films. Rick and his crew, plus the boat builders, constructed the Black Pearl around the hull of a modern steel boat, and it was completely navigable. And since the Black Pearl doesn’t figure into the story of ‘On Stranger Tides,’ Disney wanted us to use the ship as the base for the Queen Anne’s Revenge. So we basically sliced the entire top of the boat off, and were able to come up with whatever we wanted.”

Myhre looked at a lot of old pirate films and noticed that it was not always easy to distinguish one ship from another in battles, but he wanted to make the Queen Anne’s Revenge stand out and look like the most powerful ship on the seas. “The real Blackbeard captured over 20 ships,” says Myhre, “so I pitched the idea that he kept the one that was the most elegant and grandest. So we took the base of a two-story ship and turned it into a three-and-a-half-story ship.”

Before its transformation into the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the Black Pearl sailed an astonishing 2400 nautical miles in two weeks from San Pedro, California to Barbers Point, Oahu, (since it was constructed for “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” built around the hull of an offshore supply boat called the Sunset, the Pearl has put in more than 8,000 nautical miles), under the expert seamanship of its captain, Glenn Hall, aka “Captain Kiwi” and his crew of seven very hearty shipmates.

For four months at The Phoenician shipyard in Kapolei, Greg Callas’ construction crew, in concert with Bruce Ross’ marine department, gave the Black Pearl its ultimate makeover. “The ship had sat in dry dock for five years, so she was tired in spots,” notes Callas. “We had to do a lot of deck replacement, with lots of sculpting of elements in Los Angeles and then shipped to Oahu.”

After its retrofit and redesign by Myhre and U.S. Supervising Art Director Tomas Voth, the Pearl re-emerged as something utterly unlike its previous incarnation. “We decided to make the stern of the boat as high as it could possibly be and still be able to sail,” notes Voth. “On the third deck, we’re 55 feet up in the air from the water line. We had to put several tons of lead weight in the front of the ship so it didn’t pop a wheelie, and the ship is now 100 tons heavier than it was as the Black Pearl.”

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On Stranger Tides: Locations and Sets

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On Stranger Tides: Locations and Sets

“Although we filmed the first three ‘Pirates’ movies mostly in the actual Caribbean,” notes Jerry Bruckheimer, “for ‘On Stranger Tides,’ we required landscapes so beautiful, they’re almost otherworldly.” After extensive location scouts, the filmmakers settled on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu, each offering their particular attributes on both land and sea.

“Both islands, especially Kauai, have these extraordinary jungles, mountains and shorelines,” says Rob Marshall. “They’re so lush, oversized and just stunning. Oahu also has beautiful landscapes, and we also did all of our shooting at sea there of Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.”

“It’s a sign of things to come when the first day of filming a big adventure is almost as adventurous as what you’re putting up on screen,” laughs Bruckheimer in recalling June 14, 2010. The almost-inaccessible Honopu Beach on Kauai’s fabled Na Pali Coast is a magnificent stretch of sand surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs rising to 1,200 feet. As a protected site by the State of Hawaii, the only way into this natural wonder was either by helicopter—with Johnny Depp surreally emerging from a chopper in full costume, hair and makeup as Captain Jack Sparrow—or by sea.

However, since boats are not permitted to actually land on the beach, the only way in for most of the company was by Zodiac craft and then either transferring to Jet Skis or getting towed behind on water sleds through what turned out that day to be a rough, punishing surf. And since the Jet Skis weren’t permitted to actually stop, everyone had to jump off or get yanked off the skis or the sleds. Of course, most of the crew, with first assistant director Peter Kohn preceding them (as he would for more than 100 days to follow), was exhilarated when they finally made it to the beach. As for the needed equipment, most of it had to be sling-loaded and brought in by helicopter.

“We always like to say that if there’s an easy way and a hard way to do something,” notes Executive Producer Barry Waldman, “we’ll choose the hard way every time. Two days before we shot on Honopu Beach, the swells were only two feet. Of course, on the day that we started shooting, they were five feet. But filming on Honopu Beach is one of those things that, if you do it right, adds enormous value to the film.”

Adds Executive Producer Chad Oman, “I thought it was great seeing Rob Marshall being pulled up on a Jet Ski right up onto the beach for his first day of filming. What a great introduction to making ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ Most of us had all been through making three ‘Pirates’ movies, but for him, it was a whole new experience, and it was wonderful to see him bringing his excitement and enthusiasm to the project.”
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On Stranger Tides: Pirates in the Third Dimension

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On Stranger Tides: Pirates in the Third Dimension

“The only way we would release ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ in 3D,” states Jerry Bruckheimer, “is if the film was actually filmed in 3D. This was very important to both Rob Marshall and me, because what we want to do is to give the audience a completely immersive experience in crystal-clear 3D that brings them right into the action, not hurt their eyeballs. And this is one of the first big adventure films to shoot in 3D on location rather than against green screen or entirely on soundstages.

With this one, we are actually in the jungles, on the beaches and on the streets of 18th-century London. “It’s a much different experience when you have to deal with the elements with two cameras rather than one, so it takes more time and adds to your budget,” Bruckheimer continues. “But shooting in digital 3D gives real dimension and size to the movie.”

“We felt very much like pioneers, I have to say,” adds Marshall, “because rarely has a film taken 3D cameras into these remote locations. We took these delicate cameras into locations like jungles, beaches, caves and ships. It was a challenge. We discovered a lot on our feet as we were going.”

Shooting in 3D presented numerous challenges to Director of Photography Dariusz Wolski (who had served in that capacity on all three previous “Pirates of the Caribbean” films on 2D 35mm film and whose collaborations with Jerry Bruckheimer go all the way back to “Crimson Tide”). “Jerry really threw a curveball at me when he said that we should shoot ‘On Stranger Tides’ in 3D,” Wolski admits. “It was a fairly new technology, and other big adventure films, like ‘Avatar,’ had been done primarily in the computer. No one had really done a movie from beginning to end, physically on location, in 3D. And especially a movie like ‘On Stranger Tides,’ which required exotic locations, big seats, boats, jungles, beaches and all the natural environments.

“It was very ambitious, and very scary,” Wolski continues, “because although everyone wants to make 3D movies, it wasn’t really figured out. We shot with two RED cameras rigged together, one shooting into a mirror. Everything has to be electronically coordinated, so there are a lot of cables, scientists and computers all over the set, and we also had a 3D monitor that we used to analyze the imagery while we were filming.”

The highly evolved RED cameras also allowed Wolski to film 3D with great attention to historic detail and lighting. “We’re trying to be very true to the period in retaining candle and natural light, as you see in 18th-century paintings. The RED is remarkable when it comes to low light level, which people relate to, as they do to a beautiful sunset,” adds Wolski.

As for the artful usage of 3D in “On Stranger Tides,” Dave Drzewiecki, the on-set stereographer, notes, “You can poke people in the eyes with spears and shoot water at the lens, but that’s not really what this movie’s about. It’s actually a very immersive and, in many ways, subtle use of the 3D experience, and it’s much grander in its depth.”

On Stranger Tides: Calling Action!

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 7:26 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: Calling Action!

“There’s no one better at creating action than George Marshall Ruge,” says Jerry Bruckheimer of the stunt coordinator/ department head and second unit director who had previously devoted his skills to the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies as well as the two “National Treasure” hits (not to mention Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy).

“This particular ‘Pirates’ movie has more of the vibe of the first film, very much character-driven, especially by Johnny as Captain Jack,” says Ruge. “I’m very comfortable designing action for that character. I feel like I know him like a family member. And then we have the new characters, and it was important for me to get a handle on them and to make sure that we blended those characterizations together in a way that animates the story.”

Ruge and his key collaborators in the stunt department, including Assistant Stunt Coordinator Daniel Barringer, Sword Master (and Stunt Double) Thomas Dupont, UK Stunt Coordinator Greg Powell and Head Stunt Rigger Kurt Lott, created a range of elaborate set pieces which often defied the laws of gravity, including Captain Jack’s 25-foot leap off a jungle cliff in Kauai and another dive off an exploding lighthouse in the Whitecap Bay scene, an intricately choreographed sword fight inside the Captain Daughter pub’s vast two-level storeroom, the thrilling carriage chase through the streets of London, the rigging of the Queen Anne’s Revenge coming to life and hoisting mutinous pirates up to the yardarms, the unprecedented mermaid attack sequence and a monumental climax at the Fountain of Youth (which Ruge began rehearsing with his stunt team in March but didn’t begin filming until October). For filming in England, Ruge and Powell enlisted no fewer than 100 stunt players.

The leading players certainly enjoyed the physicality of their roles. “All my great heroes were basically silent-film guys, where they didn’t have the luxury of words,” notes Depp, whose dexterous performances throughout his career have amply displayed his balletic physicality.

“I did two months of training in Los Angeles before filming began with George and his amazing team of people,” adds Penélope Cruz. “They taught me to lose the fear and how to be 100-percent alert.”

“You know, ‘Pirates’ has taken up seven years of my life, so I feel protective of it,” concludes George Ruge. “When you put that kind of time into anything, you want it to be memorable.”

On Stranger Tides: When All Is Said and Done…

Filed under On Stranger Tides Production Notes by on December 10, 2011 at 7:18 am {no comments}

On Stranger Tides: When All Is Said and Done...

With 106 first-unit days of filming completed on November 18, 2010, it was then up to Jerry Bruckheimer, Rob Marshall, John DeLuca and Associate Producer/post-production maestro Pat Sandston to marshal their vast team of film editors, sound- and visual- effects artists, Composer Hans Zimmer and others to complete the film in a pressure- cooker six months before its mid/ late May 2011 openings around the world.

Zimmer had already given Captain Jack and the gallery of “Pirates of the Caribbean” characters their distinctive musical sound in the three previous films, creating full-bodied orchestral scores which managed to walk the tightrope between the stirringly traditional in grand Hollywood tradition and simultaneously innovative, imaginative and adventurous.

“I love writing music and coming up with new themes,” he notes, having already created memorable leitmotifs for the likes of Captain Jack, Barbossa, Will and Elizabeth and Davy Jones in the previous films. “It gets trickier because the style was established very quickly in the first one, and then suddenly you start falling into things and start identifying the new characters in a musical way. Then it just starts rolling again, and you begin getting fresh ideas.”

“You try to treat each film as an autonomous movie,” Zimmer continues, “but at the same time, there’s great fun in revisiting old friends, as it were. We now have Penélope Cruz playing Angelica, who’s Spanish, so I felt that there could be some Latin influences in the score for ‘On Stranger Tides.’ I’ve been a big fan of Mexican guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela for years now, and I asked them if they wanted to come and play with us. We’ve been having a really great time with them being part of the musical world this film gets to inhabit.”

For all of his years as a film music composer, Zimmer, a keen student of world music, has often brilliantly interwoven ethnic sounds into many of his scores, from African (“A World Apart,” “The Power of One,” Disney’s “The Lion King,” Jerry Bruckheimer’s “Black Hawk Down”) to Asian (“Black Rain,” “The Last Samurai,” “Kung Fu Panda”) and beyond. But as one who started his career as a rock musician in The Buggles, Zimmer has maintained his links to that world. “I always saw ‘Pirates’ as rock-and-roll scores,” notes the composer, “because pirates were sort of the rock-and-rollers of the past. Rodrigo y Gabriela are basically flamenco guitarists, but they come from metal music and very much inhabit the rock-and-roll world as well. So it was a perfect fit between us and them.”

“It’s very exciting because it’s the first official invitation for us to collaborate with a great composer for a film,” says the duo’s Gabriela. “That’s very different from what we usually do. All of a sudden, we are here, building all this music from scratch. It’s very challenging and very inspiring to work on.”

In the end, as Bruckheimer notes, the best memories of shooting “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” are “the relationships with the cast and crew. Johnny is back, Geoffrey and Kevin are back, and now there are new friendships with Rob, John [DeLuca], Penélope, Ian, Sam and Astrid. The fun of it is making new friends and working with them.”

Director Rob Marshall sums up, “It was a grand adventure on-screen and off. Each moment as we were making this film, whether it was in Hawaii or London or wherever we were, I believe everyone felt part of this unique experience.”

Pirates Sails to New Overseas Record

Filed under Pirates Box Office Results, Pirates Facts by on May 23, 2011 at 12:21 am {no comments}

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Key territories included the United Kingdom ($19.5 million), Germany ($19.4 million), Japan ($18.2 million), France ($14.8 million), South Korea ($12 million), Italy ($11.5 million), Australia ($10.3 million), Spain ($10 million), Mexico ($9.8 million) and Brazil ($6.1 million).

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides off-set its domestic franchise dip with an unprecedented estimated $256.3 million foreign debut. That topped Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as the highest-grossing start ever overseas, and it was also up 20 percent from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’s $216 million.

Further illustrating their rapid growth and increased importance to the foreign marketplace, Russia and China were Pirates’s top territories with $28.6 million and $20 million, respectively. On Stranger Tides is already the top Pirates movie ever in China, and it’s just a day or two away from reaching that mark in Russia as well.

The movie also had strong launches throughout the rest of Europe and Asia, and set industry records in Latin America, the Middle East, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine. Key territories included the United Kingdom ($19.5 million), Germany ($19.4 million), Japan ($18.2 million), France ($14.8 million), South Korea ($12 million), Italy ($11.5 million), Australia ($10.3 million), Spain ($10 million), Mexico ($9.8 million) and Brazil ($6.1 million).

Including its $90.1 million domestic take, On Stranger Tides registered a $346.4 million worldwide start. That ranked slightly ahead of At World’s End but behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($381.6 million) among worldwide launches.

The big question now is whether On Stranger Tides can surpass At World’s End’s $654 million overseas total. It’s obviously off to a strong start, though it will likely fade fast over the coming weeks against stiff competition from The Hangover Part II, Kung Fu Panda 2 and X-Men: First Class.

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