POTC Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Check this out: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest didn't open anywhere new over the weekend, and saw its earnings drop nearly 50% from last weekend's level. And yet the movie still topped the overseas box office for the seventh consecutive week with $25.5 million, nearly outearning the next three highest-grossing films (Miami Vice, Superman Returns and -- sign of the apocalypse? -- Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) combined.

The return of Jack Sparrow (which hasn't even opened in Italy and Greece yet) has so far made $522.7 million abroad and $923.8 million total, numbers that have it moving quickly up the all-time charts. Currently sitting in sixth place in the worldwide rankings, it's only matter of time before POTC2 passes Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace ($924.3 million) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($926.3 million), and the movie has the fabled $1 billion threshold (so far crossed only by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) squarely in its sights. Oh, and it's also now Disney biggest release of all time -- I wonder if they've installed that Scrooge McDuck-style vault full of loose bills at the studio yet.

All hell broke loose at Disney yesterday, and when the dust cleared, 650 people -- including Nina Jacobsen, the company's well-regarded head of live-action production -- had been canned, and movie production had been cut by over 30%. Though the fallout from the changes (particularly the firing of Jacobsen) will no doubt resonate for weeks, the facts are these: Disney is turning its focus inward, towards the Disney brand in general, and "emphasiz[ing] blockbuster franchise films over more adult fare," as evidence by the reduction of "esoteric" arm Touchstone's output to only two or three films per year.

Though I'd argue with that characterization of Touchstone (in addition to Hidalgo, The Village and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the label also produced Sweet Home Alabama and The Hot Chick), it's a small detail. The primary impetus behind all remains Disney's determination to concern itself with the broader potential of its successful branded franchises. For example, "A hit like Pirates of the Caribbean ... can spawn video games, action figures, cable TV shows and ... give new life to an old Disney theme park attraction." It's still far too early to judge the long-term impact of these changes, but it's hard not to see the decision to replace Jacobsen with Oren Aviv, a man whose last job with the company had him in charge of marketing, among other things, as a sign of things to come. And you thought that list of POTC products was a joke!

Man alive -- considering how much work George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic is getting these days, it's a wonder any other effects houses can stay in business. Hot on the heels of its "Oh my God that tentacle-face is soooo realistic!" success with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the company has a packed slate of projects due to be released in the next 18 months or so. In addition to its continued status as effects overlord for the POTC and Harry Potter franchises, ILM is also at work on Paramount's The Spiderwick Chronicles (due out in December 2007), Eragon (December 2006), Evan Almighty and Transformers (both summer 2007). And, as an added bonus, the company seems to have become the go-to house for companies wishing to render 2-D films in three dimensions: After successfully converting Chicken Little earlier this year, ILM is now working on getting Tim Burton's wonderful The Nightmare Before Christmas ready for its 3-D Halloween re-release. And then they'll break for lunch.

True, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest hasn't actually released in the theaters yet, but because of the back-to-back nature of the filming we've already got some sort of idea about what to expect from part three in the franchise. However, Disney has done a decent job of keeping the story under wraps (as yours truly can attest to, having had a run-in with them several months ago).* However, plot info is beginning to leak out now through comments made by a few of the actors, particularly Kevin McNally. McNally plays Captain Jack's second in the film (for those of you who weren't aware) and he recently spoke with BANG Showbiz about the third film during a premiere event of some sort in London. Here's what he had to say: "The only thing I can say is that we go to a completely other part of the world and we face a completely new range of baddies which are even worse than the ones we've faced before - they're really, really evil and nasty - even more so than Davy Jones, although he'll be back of course." McNally also said the third film will include a "big supernatural element" unlike anything seen in the first two. Which is impressive, since part one was certainly stuffed wth the supernatural. ...

*(And yet, the original story can be found with a simple Google search. Seriously. --- Ed.)

Man. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest sounds like it's pretty freaking awesome, people. I somehow missed the POTC bug the first time around (I saw it and thought it was ok, but it just didn't leave me desperate for more), but reading David Poland's review of the sequel had me checking to see how many more days I would have to wait to see it. There's also a long, equally positive review up at AICN, but since you have to take their raves with a grain or 500 of salt, Poland's got me a lot more fired up.

Though both reviewers think the movie is too long (which seems to be common among Summer (Ed: I know, December isn't summer. Sorry.) -- King Kong, Superman Returns, and now this), but they both are over the moon about how wonderful it is, in a "studio confection" sort of way. As Poland says, this isn't rocket science. The film isn't changing the world, it's simply "kicking ass, taking names, and reminding us all of the joy that going to a big summer movie is supposed to inspire in us." Awe. Some.

Both reviews tread very carefully to avoid spoilers, so I think it's safe to go take a look. If you're super-sensitive, though, and don't even want to know about general plot points or stuff like effects, stay away, because things like that are covered in spades.

Movie studios love the sequel. If they can find any good excuse for churning out a part two, you can bet they will. Frequently, we see the box office returns fall off when studios go back to the well, but sometimes they hit a success and begin dreaming of a trilogy. For whatever reason, three is a nice, round number for film installments to come in. After three one generally finds the franchise dying out for any number of reasons -- audience fatigue, ballooning budgets, actors tired of playing the same characters, etc. But every great now and then, a film franchise takes off and we get an entire chain of movies. Harry Potter has done it very successfully, and Narnia is certainly making a push to be the next. And now it seems as though Johnny Depp would like to add Pirates of the Caribbean to the club. Depp was very emphatic about it, as a matter of fact, saying "[Jack Sparrow is] a blast to play, I'll be in a deep, dark depression saying goodbye to him ... Maybe 'Pirates 4, 5 and 6'. If they had a good script, why not? I mean, at a certain point, the madness must stop, but for the moment, I can't say that he's done."

Honestly, the only thing that could slow Depp down would be audience fatigue ... and I'm not sure I see that happening. Perhaps the movie-going public will have had enough of Captain Jack after two more summers of Pirates, but I suspect we'll all be saying the same thing as Depp; why does it have to stop now? It's not like the high seas lack for entertaining popcorn-action story lines, after all.