Depp and Co. set sail once again for another Pirates sequel
A source close to production who was not authorized to speak publicly said Monday director Joss Whedon would take over completing the film, which should still hit its Nov. 17 release.
Snyder and his wife and producing partner Deborah Snyder told
they will be using the time away to focus on their family and seven children.
The Reporter story says Snyder’s 20-year-old daughter, Autumn, killed herself in March. Coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter said Autumn Snyder’s March 12 death is being investigated as a possible suicide due to an overdose of prescription medications. The official cause of death has been deferred pending toxicology results.
Snyder told the magazine that at first he tried to throw himself back into work, but in the past two months realized he needed to be with his family — especially as additional photography shoots in London loomed on the horizon.
“They are all having a hard time. I’m having a hard time,” Snyder said.
The Snyders are cornerstone players in Warner Bros. production of DC Comics films. He directed both
and and is serving as a producer on the additional films in the DC Universe, including last year’s and the upcoming
is a critical entry in the slate of DC films, bringing together major superheroes like Ben Affleck’s Batman, Henry Cavill’s Superman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller’s The Flash and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman.
Whedon, who directed the Marvel Comics ensemble films
and its sequel and is writing and directing for Warner Bros., has been working with Snyder on Justice League for more than a month. In addition to post-production work, Whedon will also shoot some additional scenes for the film.
Warner Bros. Pictures president Toby Emmerich told the Reporter the additional scenes will adhere to the style and template set by Snyder.
Snyder said he knows fans will be worried about the film without him at the helm.
But, he added, “In the end, it’s just a movie. It’s a great movie. But, it’s just a movie.” LOS ANGELES —
continues to feature Johnny Depp’s scallywag Captain Jack Sparrow alongside familiar mates and blackguards on his trail.
The fifth swashbuckling fantasy also introduces young loves and a new villain in the form of Javier Bardem’s ghoulish pirate hunter, Armando Salazar.
Indications are fans will happily fork over their doubloons for the blend of special effects action and cheeky comedy, which references the first film of 2003.
Back then, it was producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s hunch that led to a film franchise so far attracting a box office booty of nearly $1.05 billion worldwide. The latest edition will likely add millions more to those coffers.
Not bad for a movie based on a Disney ride that navigated around some predictions of a cinematic shipwreck before its unheralded release.
“I thought it was going to end my career,” recalls Bruckheimer with key cast members of the new Pirates picture, minus Depp. “The hardest one is always the first one.”
In Captain Jack is being pursued by Salazar and his Spanish ghost crew. Along for the new journey is Captain Jack’s old nemesis Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).
New are wannabe astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) and Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), the son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), who is determined to free his father from the Flying Dutchmen curse.
Henry can do that by locating the Trident of Poseidon before Salazar captures Jack, Henry and Carina. A showdown is inevitable. So are some surprise revelations and a few guest cameos.
As usual, Captain Jack is his stumbling, mumbling, witty self.
“I was just amazed by how easy it is for him as a clown to be (Sparrow),” Bardem says of Depp. “The first few times I did scenes they had to say, ‘Cut,’ because I was laughing. As a moviegoer I was like, ‘Wow, here is Jack Sparrow.’ ”
Rush as Barbossa was a lot more familiar with Depp’s alter ego, having joined the actor in the early stages of developing both of their characters during costume fittings.
“We figured that because of the rum and the sun, their brains must be fried,” Rush says of their battling buccaneers then and now.
However, Barbossa is certainly richer in the newest Pirates chapter as indicated by his treasureladen ship. “He’s become sort of a pirate corporate CEO — if he only he had spent some of his money on his teeth and his skin.”
And like the previous films, Rush says Depp kept to himself off camera during the year-long stretch of filming in and around Australia. “He’s quite a shy guy and he likes his solitude,” he says of Depp.
On set, though, Depp was always inventive, inclusive and enthusiastic from one day to the next.
“Johnny likes to play,” Bardem says “He won’t ever let you down. He’s always very caring about the person in front of him and gives lots for the other actor to play with.”
That’s confirmed by co-directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, who earned a name for themselves with a much more modest 2012 Norwegian sea adventure called
“Johnny doesn’t need any direction,” Ronning says. The filmmakers did meet with him every morning to discuss the day’s sequences. “And then he would do something completely different filming the scene, but that was the fun of it.”
It was Bruckheimer who decided Ronning and Sandberg would bring a new vitality to the franchise while recalling the tone of the more playful original. “We wanted to return
back to the movie we were fans of growing up in the backyard trying to make something with our parent’s video camera,” Ronning says.
The director does confess they wanted Captain Jack to remain the same, though.
“He’s the only character who doesn’t have an arc in the movie and he doesn’t learn a thing,” Ronning says.