Oooohh! This sounds good!

As pointed out by Dan in the AN&V Forum, the Los Angeles News website has indicated that work on Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 has begun in earnest, with several exciting concepts potentially in the works. While the responses don’t sound too thrilled, I must say that what we don’t need is another Pirates movie that does what the first three did…again.

They need to go bigger and better as any sequel does, but adding a new, and in this case completely fresh angle, is what just might keep the franchise – Disney’s biggest – afloat.

Interesting too that Depp and Rush are the only recurring major cast members (I’m going to go ahead and assume that their crew will be back on board as well). But Knightley and Bloom’s character arcs have been completed, and through shooting of At World’s End Knightley repeatedly insisted this would be her last dabbling in Piracy for her.

Time to move on.

The Pirates movies have recalled the epic adventures of Walt’s era, such as 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Swiss Family Robinson and In Search Of The Castaways, so the introduction of Jules Verne type elements would be more than in keeping with the direction the series has been set course for.

Apart from anything else, this sounds like a complete break from the dangerously close to being waterlogged third picture and a return to the fun and originality of the first. My only hope is that they throw in the ghost of Blackbeard as a true sort of scary phantom that the series has so far been lacking, and see the sense to make this a self-contained, but two-part, adventure.

The high seas has never sounded like it could be so much fun!

– Ben.