Pirates of the Caribbean’s Fourth is On Stranger Tides

There’s a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie on the way in summer 2011 and it’s been given a title of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. As far as anyone knows, only Johnny Depp is onboard to reprise his character. On that note, there isn’t a confirmed director either. Gore Verbinski had left to attempt BioShock, although he later had to leave that too, so it’s not impossible for him to now return. Rob Marshall’s name was rumored to be in negotiations, but nothing’s been confirmed on that end either.

Anyway, I have no great love for the franchise. The first film was decent enough while the sequels were tedious and near self-parody. Mostly though, I just never cared one bit about the lives and storylines of most of the characters, excluding Jack Sparrow and Barbossa. An art book described a potential fourth film’s plot as involving just those two characters hunting down the Fountain of Youth, and the third film’s end pointed to Jack doing just that. If a fourth film ditches the boring side characters and gets rid of the overly-convoluted plots where characters were constantly switching and masking agendas, then I might be interested. It’s conceivable.

For now, look for this to go into production within the first half of 2010.