Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

[MacGuffin]

Chow Down for Pirates 3
Yun-Fat set for swashbuckling sequel.
 
Chow Yun-Fat has been confirmed for Pirates of the Caribbean 3, according to today's Variety.

Chow will reportedly play Captain Sao Feng, a notorious pirate who plays a major role in the second Pirates sequel. Fans that have been tracking the project with us will remember that the Hong Kong native was originally rumored to be playing infamous 15th century Chinese pirate Cheung Po Tsai back in 2004. There's obviously been a role revision since then.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the still-untitled third installment in the swashbuckling franchise are being filmed semi-concurrently.

Not much is known about the third film in the series, but Chest tells what happens as Captain Jack Sparrow tries to figure out how to pay back a blood debt he owes to the legendary Davey Jones, ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. If he's unable to pay, he'll be cursed to eternal damnation. As you might expect, Captain Jack's problems complicate the wedding plans of the blissful Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who quickly find themselves thrust back into Jack's misadventures.

Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom will be joined by Stellan Skarsgard as Bootstrap Bill and Naomie Harris as a gypsy queen

The first sequel will sail into theaters in Summer 2006 with the third film in the series opening in Summer '07.

The production is currently on break and will resume mid-August in Los Angeles before moving back to various tropical locales in the Caribbean.

[MacGuffin]

Keith Richards a lock for Pirates 3
Source: Moviehole

Finally. The ink is dry. The deal is done. The rocker will learn to sail.

Keith Richards, who producers have been in talks with for years to play the role of Captain Jack Sparrow's pop, has finally agreed to star in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

"Hopefully, he won't fall out of any more trees," producer Jerry Bruckheimer said yesterday, referring to Richards's palm tree mishap a few weeks ago that injured his brain, requiring surgery and weeks of recuperation.

According to The Star, Richards will probably film his "Pirates of the Carribean 3" role in August, whilst The Rolling Stones are taking a respite from their tour.

Director Gore Verbinski said with a wink that Richards' role would be "open to interpretation."

Though Internet scuttlebutt had it that producers tried to get Richards for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (due out next month), it was stated that the plan was always to get the rocker to do an appearance in the third film, and the third film only. In other words, it all went according to plan (or so, they care to admit).

[Pubrick]

Richards's palm tree mishap a few weeks ago that injured his brain

Richards ... has finally agreed to star in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

just sayin.

[MacGuffin]

According to British newspaper Daily Express, Keith Richards begged the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean to let his fellow Rolling Stones bandmates appear in the third installment of the franchise along with him. Richards thought it would be a hoot if Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts could play a vile pirate crew that hangs around Richards' character. Apparently, however, producers denied his request saying the script doesn't allow for it.

[MacGuffin]

Keira Knightley Could Tell You About 'Pirates 3,' But She'd Have To Kill You
'At World's End,' set for May '07 release, has plenty of 'twists and turns,' promises director.
Source: MTV

BEVERLY HILLS, California — The opening weekend of one of the most anticipated films in years has come and gone, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" took home a predictably impressive booty. Now, with a third film due May 2007, the time has come to try to get the pirate performers to cough up their secrets.

"I am so not going to say anything!" an indignant Keira Knightley shrieked recently when pressed for details on "At World's End," the newly titled third and final "Pirates" flick. "I'd have to kill you if I said anything. It would be very messy."

So, like a child running from mommy's "no" to daddy's "yes," sometimes the best thing a fan can do is keep trying until a desired answer is given. And although Knightley is threatening bodily harm, series director Gore Verbinski is happy to discuss the Herculean task that would have most directors running for the hills like Jack Sparrow when faced with headhunters.

"I hope that you feel like there was an era and that era came to an end and there was a reason why," said Verbinski of the trilogy. "It's nice to make a pirate movie, expand that movie and then almost do the postmodern version of that pirate movie in a trilogy. That's what I like about 'At World's End,' because not only do we have to go to the end of the world, but there's also a double meaning because of what happened there. You'll see."

"We're going back soon," Orlando Bloom said of the final leg in the "Pirates" journey, which begins shooting next month. "We're going back to film three more months."

This much we know: "End" will begin where "Chest" concludes, building off the surprise ending that brought back a pivotal character from "The Curse of the Black Pearl." Chow Yun-Fat ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") will join the cast as the mysterious Captain Sao Feng. The film opens and is largely set in Singapore, utilizing a massive set that inhabited Universal's Hollywood lot for months. Oh, and if you think you've seen the last of Captain Jack Sparrow, you're as clueless as a pirate wearing two eye patches.

"Are they gonna stay on?" Johnny Depp said of Sparrow's trademark gold teeth, currently adorning his mouth. "Only until we're done filming number three. Then I'll have to go through the process of yanking them."
 
With the seemingly imperiled Sparrow returning, fans can look forward to the aftermath of his love-triangle-creating kiss with Knightley, as well as further developments in his relationship with gypsy hostess with the mostess Tia Dalma.

"It's supposed to be that we're lovers," revealed actress Naomie Harris, who plays the mysterious soothsayer. "We talked about it in rehearsals, but Gore left it up to us, really, to come up with our own stories ourselves."

In the third film, Tia Dalma's role is expanded substantially, and she even gets to see some action. "I go on a ship with all the guys and go on their journey, which is really nice," Harris revealed. "No fighting, although I do throw a bomb. That's as physical as I get."

Verbinski, who calls Yun-Fat "fantastic, such a pleasure to work with," says that his character and the Singapore location — which includes a scene in a bathhouse — will bring a welcome change to the pirate tale.

"Fortunately, just when [staleness] starts happening in the third movie, we get to have an Asian influence," he said. "The pirates get a whole changeover, and that's really nice because you get kind of sick of the same old [thing]: beard, slap on the hat, put on the bandanna, put in the rotten teeth, argggh!"

"At World's End" will also resolve the tender story line between Will and his damned daddy, Stellan Skarsgard's "Bootstrap" Bill Turner. Revealing that "you'll see me even worse off in the next one," Skarsgard said this about the cost-cutting strategy of shooting two sequels simultaneously: "Basically it's like making one five-hour movie and then chopping it up in two."

"It's inevitably triage every day on the set," Verbinski laughed while discussing the process that will take more than four years of his life. "You have release dates coming at you, and you've got two massive puzzles that have been dumped out on a table. The pieces are all mixed up, and we're in Dominica and we're filming scenes for 'Pirates 2,' and while we're here, because we have to clean out and we're not going to come back, we have to get a scene from 'Pirates 3' that hasn't been written yet.

"We've had a skeleton of both movies, so even though certain scenes weren't written, we knew what they were about," the director continued. "Pages would come in on Wednesday, the actor would get them on Friday and then we would shoot them on Monday."

After the final round of shoots (scheduled to take place from August to the end of October), Verbinski plans to give audiences a film that is both thrilling and cohesive when it hits theaters come May. "You can't give them the same thing again," he said of his promise to the audience. "You have to surprise them, and you have to take it up a notch and give them twists and turns. Inevitably, part of those twists and turns is taking them places that they don't expect, and it creates anticipation of the third film, with many people feeling like the three films were designed as one epic tale.

"Well, they weren't," the director added. "But I want to be able to look at all three films on DVD someday and be like, 'That was a cohesive trilogy.' "

"You'll have to wait and see," the tough-to-crack Knightley said. "It should be good, though."

[A Matter Of Chance]

From IMDB.com:

Keith Richards "Drunk" on 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Set

Keith Richards appearance in the second Pirates Of The Caribbean sequel descended into chaos after he reportedly got so drunk on the movie set, the film's director had to prop him up. The hellraising Rolling Stones guitarist finally shot his long awaited cameo as Johnny Depp's father in Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End earlier this summer, but he is unlikely to remember the occasion which concluded months of speculation. Bill Nighy, who plays Davy Jones in the film, tells Empire Online that Richards was inebriated by the time the production team retrieved him from his trailer to shoot his scene, and he required a little support from director Gore Verbinski. The 62-year-old rocker is reported to have remarked, "If you wanted straight, then you got the wrong man."

[Kal]

Poster

[picolas]

spoilers?

[edison]

[Pubrick]

yes, no Whom. if only the whole movie was like that.. you wouldn't notice him even if he was in those pictures.

[MacGuffin]

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.



Scene Preview here.

[MacGuffin]

Snorting remark by Keith Richards doesn't sit well with Disney
He has a cameo in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,' but he 'won't be doing a lot of publicity for this movie.'
Source: Los Angeles Times

Snorting a speedball of cocaine and dear old dad may be the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend but apparently it's not the sort of tale told to children at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Keith Richards' macabre remark about snorting a mixture of cocaine and the cremated remains of his deceased father may have amused music fans with its ghoulish sensibilities, but it caused a moment of alarm inside Walt Disney Studios, home to the movie marketing team behind the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

Richards has a much-anticipated cameo as Teague Sparrow, father of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), in the hit franchise opening May 25. While drinking, womanizing and cannibalism may be comedic themes that course through the film, the real-life substance abuse and off-screen antics of "Pirates" stars are no laughing matters when it comes to marketing and publicizing one of the summer's biggest family films.

"When [a senior Disney publicist] forwarded the [Richards] story to me ... I thought, 'How are we going to spin this?' " Dennis Rice, Disney's senior vice president for publicity, said during a presentation to the media of the studio's upcoming films Wednesday morning.

As a result of Richards' remark, which was later discounted by his representatives as just a joke, it is likely that the rocker's appearances on the red carpet in support of the film will be curtailed.

"Keith won't be doing a lot of publicity for this movie," Rice added.

The Disney spokesman also addressed persistent rumors of future "Pirates" films, noting that despite reports to the contrary, no decisions have been made about the fourth, fifth or sixth films.

" 'At World's End' really is the end of the trilogy, bringing 'Pirates' 1 and 2 full circle," he said.

The sequel to "Pirates" has made more than $1 billion in worldwide box office since it was released last July.

[grand theft sparrow]

Saw this last night.  Knowing that this one wouldn't be as much fun as the first one, I think I was able to enjoy it more than Dead Man's Chest.  But I wouldn't say it's any better, or even different, of a movie.  It's fun but the charm that made the first movie so enjoyable was replaced again by those patented kids movie cheap laughs.  But no fart jokes, so I can't complain too much.

It's also not a close to a trilogy, as it's really just Dead Man's Chest, Vol. 2.  Sometime in the future when the next step up from Blu-Ray/HD-DVD comes out that can hold 6 hours plus extras on one side of the disc, they'll probably put out an uninterrupted cut of 2 and 3 on one disc.

The reviews that say it was confusing are a little off.  It's not that it's confusing so much as you're put in a spot where you kind of don't care what specifically happens so long as something does.  It's not like you need to follow the story closely; it's just not much of a story.  If they had cut half of 2 and 3 out and made it one film, it might have been great.  But why make only $1 billion when you can make $2 billion?  Or $3 billion, since a part 4 is imminent.

[Redlum]

How is it that these films are packed with such rich and deliscious visuals and production design but the story and characters are so incredibly vapid? It really is such a cynical dissapointment having enjoyed the first film quite a lot.

I've never felt so detached from a film. It was just complete nonsense. And perhaps the worst part is - I really should have known better. I still refuse, however, to lose hope for that elusive summer blockbuster that manages to do its job properly and offer a couple of hours pure escape and entertainment and fly in the face of the growing consensus that popular cinema has become a load of old shit.