Pirates of the Caribbean 4 has been without a captain ever since trilogy director Gore Verbinski decided to focus on Bioshock. Last week we heard that Disney were planning on filming next year, so finding a new director has most likely been their top priority for a while. Well according to Variety they may have found one. He goes by the name of Rob Marshall and he is the director of Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha and upcoming musical Nine.
Disney is on the verge of putting Rob Marshall in as director of a fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a move that puts the film on track for a 2010 production start, with Johnny Depp back as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have been meeting with a number of directors in recent weeks, because the studio wants to pull the “Pirates” film together and have Depp star in it before he does “The Lone Ranger” for the producer and the studio. While Marshall’s involvement wasn’t immediately confirmed, sources said things look good enough that the studio has begun casting new characters that will appear in the picture.
It is big business for Disney, as the “Pirates” trilogy grossed $2.6 billion worldwide with Verbinski at the helm. Sources say unless things break down at the last moment, Marshall will be steering the pirate vehicle’s next installment.
Getting a man who’s had his hand up the skirts of two musicals doesn’t seem like the most obvious choice for a Pirate film, but than again you would never have thought the director of Mousehunt and The Ring could give us epic maelstrom ship battles. As long as Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew don’t burst into song and dance simultaneously to music appearing out of nowhere, I’ll be happy.
Disney have also said that for Pirates 4 they would “scale it down, because [they] can’t get bigger”, which is true. Not only was At Worlds End large in scale, it was also costly, so scaling down the action and replacing it with character and story (and non-musical numbers) would be better for them, and it would be something i’d welcome too. Hiring a director like Rob Marshall who isn’t really an action director gives us an idea where Disney are headed.
What are your thoughts on Rob Marshall possibly directing Pirates of the Caribbean 4? Would you welcome a more character driven story, or would you prefer it to be action packed and epic like before?
