This news has the gaming world all a-flutter. Variety announced today that Gore Verbinski is taking the director's chair for the big screen adaptation of Bioshock. Universal has the rights to the video game adaptation, which Verbinski will direct and produce. John Logan will write the screenplay, and Verbinski plans to jump into pre-production as soon as it is finished and approved.

Bioshock was a hugely successful game, winning numerous awards and making a movie inevitable. And Take-Two Interactive, Bioshock's publisher, is so determined to see it onscreen that they structured the deal to make Halo like failure impossible.

Now that Gore Verbinski seems to be finished with Pirates, I guess he's getting a little anxious about securing himself a new franchise. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Verbinski is getting into the animation business, and he is still assembling his team for the yet to be named film. So far, some of the designers include; visual effects specialist Mark "Crash" McCrery and story and storyboard artist James Ward Bruit. Both men are veterans from the Pirate films, so there won't be a need for any introductions. Verbinski has yet to decide if he will be handling the animation work in-house, and is waiting to see what he has to work with once the script is completed.

The film has a projected budget of around $100 million and has a first look deal with Warner Bros. (thanks to Verbinski's producing partner, Graham King). The two met through screenwriter John Logan (Sweeney Todd), who had worked with King on The Aviator (even more proof that it's who you know in Hollywood). Logan is already in talks to pen the screenplay, but so far there are no details on the story. All we do know is that the flick will be of the action-adventure variety. But that isn't stopping Verbinski from pitching the idea of built in sequels to whatever Logan comes up with. Then again, it's not like it really matters, this is the guy who made a billion dollar franchise out of a crappy theme park ride. Verbinski's untitled animated extravaganza is expected to be released in 2010.

Manoel de Oliveira's Belle Toujours is back on the charts this week, playing on one lone screen, in Denver, according to my information. Among its other qualities and achievements, it marks the fourth collaboration of director Oliveira and actor Michel Piccoli (a fifth, a short segment in an anthology film, appeared earlier this year). At 81, Piccoli is practically a living legend, having worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle, Mario Bava, and many other greats. He also appears in Jean-Pierre Melville's 1962 Le Doulos, currently re-released on 2 screens. It's a delicate relationship between director and actor; Piccoli and Oliveira seem to be developing a comfortable working relationship in which each brings out the best in the other. This has happened relatively few times over the past century. When it happens, it can be very exciting, but when a director and an actor don't click, everything can fall to pieces.

Milos Forman has coaxed and guided some great performances over the years, notably Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus and Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon. But he has rarely been praised for directing women, as evidenced by his awkward handling of Natalie Portman in the awful Goya's Ghosts (37 screens). The movie earned advance attention for its nude/sex scene, but will probably be remembered for fitting Portman with a set of humorously bad fake teeth and for her self-consciously dazed walk, newly released from prison, through a chaotic town square. Forman may be to blame, but Portman is out there, on the screen, all alone and in front of everyone.

About seven hours into Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, someone stuffs a monkey into a cannon, lights the fuse and sends it shooting across the deck to crash into another character. That monkey is like us, the audience -- bruised, confused and unsure what it did to deserve this punishment. We have to endure a hurricane of hooey, a hydra-headed story with more subplots and pointless reversals than a Raymond Chandler tale and more doodad MacGuffins -- a compass that points to this, a key that unlocks that -- than even a parody could endure, all of which leads to a sort of white noise of confusion where a plot should be. Even if that monkey-cannon were pointed at my head, I couldn't explain to you why, for example, the key pirates from the previous two films are now introduced to us as 'pirate lords' -- leaders of some kind of pirate's union, which, judging by Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) does not offer dental. It's their lordship, and what that means for pirates everywhere, that this trilogy capper is supposedly about.

You'll remember that at the end of the last film, Dead Man's Chest, Depp's swishy swashbuckler was betrayed by Keira Knightley's colonial babe Elizabeth Swann, left manacled to the deck of his ship as it was being eaten by a steroid-squid, in the hopes that a sticky pirate curse would drown with him and his ship. The audience wasn't fooled -- even the most casual moviegoer knew Depp would be returning for part three -- but films that include an easy-breezy transition between life and afterlife often find themselves having to paddle twice as hard to get dramatic tension going, which is one of the problems that most plagues At World's End. After all, if no one can really die, what's the worst thing that can happen? (One of the reasons I've never bothered to read a comic book in my life, by the way) Somewhere around the thirty-minute mark of this one, we're re-introduced to Captain Jack, who is stuck in some kind of Looney Tunes purgatory, commanding a ship sitting in the middle of a desert, and crewed only by multiple Jack Sparrows.

Cinematical recently sent one of our Netscape colleagues, Ryan Budke, to the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End junket in LA on our behalf, where he was able to snag some one-on-one time with the film's director, Gore Verbinski and, later on in the day, with action-blockbuster maestro Jerry Bruckheimer. Each interview is somewhat short, but taken together they make for a nice read -- I found it especially interesting to hear Bruckheimer's thoughts about the potential continuation of the Top Gun series and his confirmation that someone is indeed hard at work on the continuing adventures of Axel Foley. For Verbinski's part, he seems to be completely exhausted by the experience of shooting the film and is only dreaming about taking a long, uninterrupted vacation, before rotating back to the movie world. So here are the two interviews, back to back -- enjoy!


Gore Verbinski

I'm sure these next two weeks are gonna be ...

GV: They're mad, but they're nothing compared to actually making the movie.

I guess I should ask you the question you've been asked a million times -- when will we get to see 'Pirates 4'?

GV: There are no plans for four. Ted and Terry and I are not spending nights until three in the morning writing and coming up with ideas. That's certainly what we did once we agreed to do the second and third one. We spent a lot of time just figuring out what story we wanted to tell. It doesn't mean that somewhere down the road we might not decide to jump in, and we've certainly left that option open, but I think everyone needs a little time off. And it really depends on -- is there a story worth telling? I don't think anyone wants to jump back into a 'here's your release date and there's no script.' I think we have a very talented crew and we've done what I think is some pretty amazing work under those circumstances, but they're not circumstances you want to engage in time after time.

You could always go the Indiana Jones route, and just take fifteen or twenty years off.

GV: See, that sounds good to me. I don't think it sounds so good to the studio.

So if we're not gonna get part four next summer, what's up next for you?

GV: Next summer ... insane. I'm looking forward to vacation, actually. This has been such a long time with no light at the end of the tunnel. I made the ring and couldn't go to the premiere because I was shooting Pirates. Then made The Weatherman, then Pirates, then Pirates3 ... so its been about seven or eight years or solid movie after movie. I'm looking forward to not knowing what I'm doing next, not owing somebody a movie, reading some books, reading some scripts ... just taking a little bit of time to just live instead of work.

Did you have trouble following the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest? Well, get ready to be more confused by the next installment, which arrives in theaters May 25. Entertainment Weekly has a cover story about the movie in its latest issue, hitting newstands (and my mailbox) today, which includes quotes from stars Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski. All three seem to be in agreement that audiences and critics are going to have just as tough a time with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Bloom goes so far as to joke that writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio can't even explain what's going on in the new movie. Verbinski claims he doesn't mind if people are confused, though. He says the Pirates movies are made to be watched multiple times in order to be fully clear to the viewer. Of course, he seems to think that having a convoluted story means having a deep and intelligent story, because he goes on to tell the magazine that he doesn't want to dumb the movies down to where they are "processed cheese". He wants us to think about Pirates of the Caribbean afterward. Funny, I am one of the few critics who was able to enjoy Dead Man's Chest, but I never once thought about it afterward. Except maybe to tell someone how cool the Davy Jones character looks.

As for the critics, who universally panned the second movie (I didn't review it, unfortunately), Depp says they are going to attack At World's End just as much if not more. He understands the reasons why critics took "a dump" on the previous film, predicts that they'll "go below the belt" with the new film, and he says it's all "cool". The villains from the movies had a bit to say on the subject, too. Geoffrey Rush says that when you're doing such complex stunts and action sequences, you can't be thinking of the critics. Bill Nighy adds that the grosses point to the idea that the movies are doing something right, implying that the minority opinions of film reviewers don't seem to matter. Of course, Nighy will never have to worry about what critics say about him, as he's one of the most enjoyable actors working today. And Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will likewise not have to worry about negative reviews, because it will make a bundle regardless -- that is, as long as enough people don't care about being confused again.

Famous comic Berkeley Breathed has been quite chatty while on tour for his latest offering -- Mars Needs Moms! While his latest may or may not ring bells, you surely know him as the creator of Bloom County, the strange comic world that houses famous characters like Opus and Bill the Cat. Now, while promoting his story about Milo, "slavedriving broccoli bullies" and Martians, he's been telling fans about his collaborations with Gore Verbinski and Robert Zemeckis.

The Pirates of the Caribbean helmer and Breathed have been collaborating on a CG adaptation of his 2003 kid's book, Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound. The writer admits that "there's only a hint of story in the book. But all of the characters and settings that you need for a fun movie are there." A bunch of wacky animals desperate to be adopted? Sounds like family film material to me. That's not all that Breathed said about the collaboration. According to him, Gore is "sick of pirates. If I wrote a scene that had to be shot on water, he'd run the other way." (It's more hearsay, but seems to be further confirmation that Johnny Depp is the only one itching to continue the franchise.)

Now as for Robert Zemeckis, it appears that he is itching for some Martian action. At a recent book signing, Breathed said that the director is working on an adaptation of Mars Needs Moms! with a script currently in the works. The book has been optioned by Disney, and Jim Hill Media wonders if this means that Mars would be one of the first projects for Mickey's ImageMovers Digital. Me, I just wish that they'd forget these other stories and focus on The Last Basselope. He is a prehistoric beast worth some cinema time.

Two new clips from the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End have popped up on the Internets. Each is only a minute or so, but they seem to tell us one thing in particular about the movie -- it will be jokey. Both scenes seem to be respites from the action, when Captain Jack takes a few moments to engage in verbal jousting with his opposites. In the first one, he's telling off a couple of pirate whores who have apparently caught up with him on the deck of his ship. They each end up slapping him in turn. The clip then cuts to one of those 'HBO Behind the Scenes' style montages -- a blur of markers, megaphones, crew people, actors and Bruckheimer talking up the film to the cameras. If you look closely during this montage, I think you'll see some new stuff that hasn't appeared anywhere else.

The second clip is all from the movie and features a pissing match between Captain Jack and Geoffrey Rush's character, over who is actually in charge of the ship they are on. I gotta say, these new clips don't exactly fill me with a lot of confidence. I was a vocal fan of the first film -- I thought it was an entertaining kids movie, the kind of thing they should focus on making instead of those assembly line animated films that pop up every three months -- but the second one left me cold. It was too bloated, too aware of the expectations riding on it, and too bland in general to really leave an impact. The third one is starting to seem like it will also falter by trying to be too 'big,' instead of just focusing on being good. Aside from the trailer and a few other snippets here and there, I know virtually nothing about the film, though, so here's hoping they've used the first film as their template instead of the second. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is scheduled to port in theaters on May 25.

Have you heard the one about Keith Richards snorting his father's ashes? The whole story was a joke -- at least that is the current spin, anyway. Whatever the truth, though, the story has gotten Richards into a bit of trouble with Disney's publicity department. Although the Rolling Stones guitarist is one of the main attractions of this summer's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, his inability to keep his comments family-friendly are a concern for the studio. Now Disney's senior vice president for publicity, Dennis Rice, has decided not to let Richards aid in much of the promotion of the blockbuster sequel. However, considering Rice is about to leave Disney for a new job at United Artists, we can't be sure that his replacement will agree with this decision.

In the movie, Richards plays Teague Sparrow, father of Johnny Depp's popular character, Captain Jack Sparrow. He will likely be drinking a lot on screen, but because of the PG PG-13* rating there shouldn't be any self-parodic gags involving drug use. As for outside the film, Disney should expect nothing else from Richards than more good-humored remarks, appropriate for kids or not, and should have realized this upon hiring him for the movie -- just as they should have expected he'd be 'wobbly' on set. I think that for the adults who are interested in At World's End, his involvement in its publicity would be favorable. In fact, I think Richards could help attract older folks more than he would turn off offended parents (their children will scream if not permitted to see this, I'm sure).

In addition to stating the distance being made between Richards and the movie, Rice also mentioned that Disney still has not confirmed plans to go further with the Pirates franchise. He says At Worlds End completes the trilogy and that no decision has been made yet to continue the characters' adventures past this third movie. If you remember, we have only so far been given the news that Depp wants more, Keira Knightley doesn't, Orlando Bloom is not needed, director Gore Verbinski is noncommittal, screenwriter Terry Rossio is uncertain and producer Jerry Bruckheimer is down for more as long as Disney is willing.

* I forgot that the Pirates movies have too much adventure violence for a simple PG. Thanks for the reminder, Caitlin.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this trend. To what particular trend am I referring you may wonder? Is it rappers-turned actors? Or perhaps re-imaginings of classic films for modern day audiences? Or, maybe its remakes of Asian horror films for the American market? Nope. I'm pretty sure I don't like those things -- with exceptions, of course. I like Will Smith, Peter Jackson's King Kong was ok even if it was too long and The Grudge was pretty scary. No, what's got me confused today is my feelings about the current crop of films being helmed by visual effects artists instead of directors with any sort of actual directing experience.

According to a recent article in Variety, the hands-on experience that effects supervisors have gotten while working on big films with major directors has helped them move from, as Variety puts it, "behind the computer screen right into the director's chair." Don't get me wrong, I realize supervising visual effects means you're managing a large team of people towards a single vision. And yes, that's a part of directing. But really, one of the most important things about directing is being able to tell a story and work with actors. I don't know about you, but most of the visual effects people I know have a pretty hard time talking about anything that doesn't happen on Battlestar Galactica or South Park so I fear their communication skills may be lacking in some areas.