The thrilling tale of a daring rescue mission aimed at reversing an ancient curse, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” is an irreverent wink at the famous Disney theme park attraction. When the idea was first presented to the production executives at Disney Studios, they could think of only one producer able to handle the scope and intricacies of such an undertaking. Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Dick Cook, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Nina Jacobson, President of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, initially approached Jerry Bruckheimer to orchestrate this extravaganza, and Jerry was only too anxious to get underway. He has always wanted to make a motion picture about pirates.
“I loved watching pirate pictures as a kid,” says Bruckheimer. “‘Treasure Island,’ ‘Captain Blood’ and ‘The Black Pirate’ were some of my favorites. Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks were formidable, and although their movies are still exciting and very watchable today, I thought we could add some extra pizzazz to a popular theme.
“I think we take the swashbuckler genre to a new level,” he adds. “This has all the thrills and romance that you would expect from a big adventure.”
Bruckheimer—who knows better than anyone what it takes to bring ‘big adventure’ to the big screen—began assembling his team. “We brought in Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, two wonderful writers who created a hit with ‘Shrek,’” he continues. “They brought in the element of the supernatural, which gave the story an edge that interested me. Anything I’m interested in seeing, I’m interested in making.”
A trademark of Jerry Bruckheimer Films productions, writers are involved in every step of the production process. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were on set at all times during production.
“The experience Terry and I had is what every single writer dreams of,” Ted Elliott says. “For a writer, being on set every day is unheard of. From beginning to end, it was terrific. To be able to talk to the director, the producer, the actors and even someone like the makeup artist, to ask questions and find out why things are done a certain way, was such a wonderful education. It was gratifying to realize the imagination and creativity each crew member put into the movie. From set design to costumes and makeup, seeing the production unfold on set was better than anything we made up and put on paper.”
His partner agrees. “Jerry gave Gore such freedom, and Gore was confident enough with his ideas that he had no problem being collaborative,” says Terry Rossio. “We just knew the approach we wanted to take; we knew we wanted these characters and these specific moments in the story. We wanted it to be a very classic, Jane Austen-style, bodice-ripping romance.
“Ted and I actually worked very closely with Jerry, Mike Stenson and Chad Oman; they were instrumental in developing the story,” recalls Rossio. “Writers don’t often have that kind of consistent, involved access to producers, and producers are not necessarily as knowledgeable as these guys are about structure and dialogue.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
