Other Titles • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) • Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Treasures of the Lost Abyss • Dead Man's Chest • Pirates of the Caribbean 2 • Rummty II • P.O.T.C 2 • Pirates 2 • P.O.T.C. 2
“Everything that we set up in the first movie gets pushed forward in the second,” Bruckheimer continues, “and of course we have the same creative team. Gore is such a brilliant director, with a wonderful sense of humor and a great visual sense. Often, strongly visual directors aren’t great storytellers because they focus so much on the physical look of the movie. But Gore has both the visual acumen and the understanding of storytelling and characterization.
“Johnny, Orlando and Keira are all back for the ride,” adds Bruckheimer, “plus some wonderful and interesting new faces. The Black Pearl will, of course, be back, along with a new mystery ship, the Flying Dutchman, which is crewed by a very exciting and unusual group of sailors under the command of Davy Jones.
“It all comes down to the imagination of the director, writers and the hundreds of people working on the movie,” says the producer. “Everybody’s excited about making an enormous piece of entertainment that audiences will love.”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” not only revived the genre, but kicked off a groundswell of fascination for all things piratical which resulted in everything from a spate of new books about the seafaring scalawags, to a boom in pirates-themed children’s (and adult’s) parties, to pirate dinner shows, not to mention “I (Heart) Jack Sparrow” stickers plastered onto schoolgirls’ binders all over the world.
Clearly, there was a worldwide mandate for more “Pirates,” and Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski, along with Walt Disney Pictures, decided that just one sequel would not be enough. It made practical sense, economically, to film two follow-ups simultaneously, taking full advantage of locations, sets and availability of its increasingly in-demand stars. It also made sense creatively, because with the characters so well established in the first film, taking them on further voyages was an exciting prospect.
“We were hoping for the success of ‘The Curse of the Black Pearl’ so that we could make more ‘Pirates’ movies,” notes Bruckheimer, “and when you see the second and third films you’ll see that everything relates back to what started everything off in the first. It’s a true trilogy.”
“You really need to have some substance behind it,” confirms executive producer Mike Stenson. “You need to not only deliver the entertainment value, the roller-coaster ride and the laughs, but if you’re going to ask people to stay around for three movies, you have to feel like there’s something thematically significant that you’re going to explore.”
Says screenwriter Terry Rossio, “Whereas in the first film, the theme park attraction was a wellspring for ideas, for the second and third films we actually went back to the first movie.” Adds Rossio’s writing partner Ted Elliott, “There was a richness to the characters that we felt we could explore, but you don’t want to just go through the same paces with the characters. You don’t want to see them doing the same thing. One of the things we liked about the characters in the first film was that there’s a certain moral ambiguity to them, and we wanted to explore that…we wanted to put Jack Sparrow into a situation where he has to do something that, in fact, puts his goals in opposition to Will and Elizabeth’s goals. It was all about expanding the characters and taking them in a further direction.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
