The Wrap is reporting Johnny Depp is close to a deal to star, once again, as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 5 after the fourth installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, recently crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box-office.
Terry Rossio reportedly turned in the script for the fifth installment back in early May at which time Depp told The Hollywood Reporter, “It boils down to story, script and filmmaker… It’s not something where I would say, ‘Let’s shoot it next month to get it out by Christmas 2012.’ We should hold off for a bit. They should be special, just like they are special to me.”
If the Wrap’s report is correct, that must be one whopper of a script and maybe we won’t have a Christmas 2012 release but I wouldn’t cancel out Summer 2013. So it’s either the script, or perhaps it has something to do with the estimated $350 million Depp has made off the first four films in the franchise. But if that’s the case, at what point is enough … enough?
Depp used to tackle rather eclectic roles and Jack Sparrow ended up being one of them. His inclusion in the first installment in the now eight-year-old franchise was something special, but since then each installment seems to impress less and on top of that we’re getting films such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland and The Tourist in-between. And next we’ll see him in The Lone Ranger as well as yet another Tim Burton feature, Dark Shadows. He’s even remaking The Thin Man with his On Stranger Tides helmer, Rob Marshall. What gives?
I remember when I first started this site back in 2003 and everyone would get excited at the prospect of Johnny Depp starring in an upcoming film. I don’t see much of that now, perhaps because we haven’t seen much evidence recently that adding Depp to your feature adds all that much. Plus, his choice in scripts really seems to have missed the mark.
Certainly, I’m in the minority in enjoying Public Enemies, I also really liked Sweeney Todd, but I’m not going to give Depp much credit for making Rango one of the more enjoyable films of 2011 and to read the first wave of comments on my The Best and Worst Movies of 2011… So Far it sounds like there aren’t too many fans of On Stranger Tides that would be interested in seeing Depp sail the high seas once again… that is, I would assume, unless this next film actually offered something different because On Stranger Tides was certainly nothing new.
I can obviously understand why he would return to the Jack Sparrow character, but I guess it’s a combination of that as well as the unnecessary inclusion in The Lone Ranger and movies like The Thin Man that make me wonder what he’s thinking? If he didn’t have the long gestating The Rum Diary coming out this year you would have to go back to his helping hand in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus to find a non-blockbuster effort, or even farther back you’d find The Libertine and the excellent Finding Neverland.
I guess I’m saying I’d like to see the adventurous side of Depp again. I don’t mind if he keeps up with the Pirates, Burton and Jerry Bruckheimer films, but I’d like to seem him show his audience it’s about a little something more than the money. I can’t be the only one thinking this can I?
