Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

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Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Men Tell No Tales
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joachim Rønning Espen Sandberg
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Screenplay by	Jeff Nathanson
Story by	Jeff Nathanson Terry Rossio
Based on
Starring	Johnny Depp Javier Bardem Kaya Scodelario Brenton Thwaites Kevin R. McNally Geoffrey Rush
Music by	Geoff Zanelli
Cinematography	Paul Cameron
Editing by	Roger Barton Leigh Folsom Boyd
Production company(s)	Walt Disney Pictures Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date(s)	26, 2017 (2017-05-26) (United States)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$320 million

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (also known as Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge outside the US) is an American fantasy swashbuckler film, and the fifth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The film is directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg from a script by Jeff Nathanson, with Jerry Bruckheimer serving again as producer. Johnny Depp, Kevin McNally, and Geoffrey Rush reprise their roles as Jack Sparrow, Joshamee Gibbs, and Hector Barbossa, respectively. The film also stars Javier Bardem as Armando Salazar, Brenton Thwaites as Henry, and Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth. The film also features the return of Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, following his absence from the fourth installment, On Stranger Tides.

The filmmakers cited the first installment, The Curse of the Black Pearl, as inspiration for the script and tone of the film. Pre-production for the film started shortly before On Stranger Tides was released in early 2011, with Terry Rossio writing a script for the film. In early 2013, Jeff Nathanson was hired to write a new script, with Depp being involved in Nathanson's writing process. Initially planned for a 2015 release, the film was delayed to 2016 and then to 2017, due to script and budget issues. Principal photography started in Australia in February 2015, after the Australian government offered Disney $20 million of tax incentives, and ended in July 2015. It is set to be released in conventional, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats on May 26, 2017.

Premise

Captain Jack Sparrow is pursued by an old rival, Armando Salazar, who along with his Spaniard Navy ghost crew has escaped from the Devil's Triangle, and is determined to kill every pirate at sea. Jack seeks the Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that grants its possessor total control over the seas, in order to defeat Salazar.

Cast

• Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow: The eccentric pirate captain of the Black Pearl on the hunt for the Trident of Poseidon, which bestows control over the seas.
• Javier Bardem as Captain Armando Salazar: A powerful and merciless ghost pirate hunter who was trapped in the Devil's Triangle. After escaping, he seeks the Trident of Poseidon to kill every pirate at sea and exact revenge on his old enemy, Jack Sparrow.
• Brenton Thwaites as Henry: A young man who tries to reconnect with his father. He struggles to break a curse that is preventing him from doing so. Lewis McGowan portrays a young Henry.
• Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth: An astronomer. Scodelario explained the character's motivation and role saying, "she is an academic, she's fighting for the right to study at university, because women couldn't at that time. So she's on her own journey - looking for the trident of Poseidon - and she has a diary with clues." She discussed the difference between Carina and Elizabeth Swann, believing that she was not just a carbon copy of that character.
• Kevin McNally as Joshamee Gibbs: Jack's loyal friend and First Mate.
• Geoffrey Rush as Captain Hector Barbossa: The one-legged pirate captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge, former captain of the Black Pearl, and Jack's former rival-turned-ally.
• Orlando Bloom as Captain William "Will" Turner, Jr.: A blacksmith-turned-pirate who was transformed into the Captain of the Flying Dutchman at the end of At World's End. Speaking about his possible return to the franchise, Bloom stated that he would love to portray a character outside of his usual role types as a good-looking hero: "I'm of course Davy Jones now, so I'm down the bottom of the ocean. It might be kind of fun to do something where I'm rumbling round the bottom of the ocean, because I won't look anything like me. [Gestures to face] Get all gnarly."
• Golshifteh Farahani as Shansa: a sea-witch.
• Stephen Graham as Scrum Barbossa's crewmember of the Queen Anne's Revenge, former member of Blackbeard's crew.
• David Wenham as Scarfield
• Martin Klebba as Marty
• Angus Barnett as Mullroy
• Giles New as Murtogg
• Adam Brown as Jib
• Danny Kirrane
• Delroy Atkinson
• Paul McCartney

Production

Development

Shortly before the release of On Stranger Tides in 2011, the cast and crew of the fourth film were told to set aside time in the near future, as Walt Disney Pictures intended to shoot a fifth and sixth film back-to-back (like the first two sequels). However, it was later stated that only a fifth film was in the works. On January 11, 2013, Jeff Nathanson signed on to write the script for the film. Rob Marshall, the director of the last film, was believed for return to direct, but he declined after he chose to direct Into the Woods (released in 2014) and The Thin Man (both projects for Disney and starring Johnny Depp). After Marshall passed on the project, many directors were rumored for direct the film, like Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Shawn Levy, Chris Weitz, Alfonso Cuarón and Gore Verbinski (who directed the first three films). On May 9, 2013, it was reported that Fredrik Bond, Rupert Sanders, and the Norwegian film duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg were considered to direct the fifth film. Finally, on May 29, 2013, Rønning and Sandberg were selected to direct. This decision was based both on their Academy Award-nominated high sea film Kon-Tiki, as well as their ability to work with a limited budget. On August 22, 2013, Rønning and Sandberg revealed that the title of the fifth film would be Dead Men Tell No Tales. They also confirmed that they were working on the film, speaking highly of Jeff Nathanson's "funny and touching" script and that they are inspired by the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl. Kaya Scodelario felt that the film "will have much more of the feel of the first film, the producers want to take it back to the beginning again. They wanted it to have this epic journey, and for it to make sense, and for it to tie things up, and also lead to new storylines."

However, after Disney's The Lone Ranger lost the studio $190 million in 2013—a film also starring Johnny Depp in a similarly eccentric role—Disney questioned the bankability of Depp and thus the franchise, so the film was reconsidered and not actually green-lit as of early 2014. Another problem, along with the lack of success Depp experienced outside of the Pirates franchise were script problems, as Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn stated: "We haven't seen a screenplay yet that I've been able to sign off on. There's a lot of variables that affect the final outcome once it leaves the studio lot, so we are very careful." Due to these problems, the film's production was delayed and it moved from a 2015 release aspired by Disney in 2013 to a likely release in 2016. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that script as well as budget issues were behind the delay, and that Jeff Nathanson was at work on a second attempt based on a well-received outline, stating: "It’s all a factor. We want a script that everyone’s signed off on and a budget that everyone’s signed off on." After the script was accepted and the film was finally officially green-lit by Disney in July 2014, the release date moved to July 7, 2017.

Many of the crew members for the film were new to the franchise, replacing members that had served on the previous four films. Apart from directors Rønning and Sandberg and writer Nathanson, a new director of cinematography, Paul Cameron replacing Dariusz Wolski, production designer Nigel Phelps, visual effects supervisor Gary Brozenich, special effects supervisor Dan Oliver, supervising stunt coordinator R. A. Rondell, stunt coordinators Thomas Robinson Harper and Kyle Gardiner, makeup and hair designer Peter Swords King, executive producers Joe Caracciolo Jr. and Brigham Taylor replacing Mike Stenson, film editors Joel Cox, Gary D. Roach and Roger Barton and composer Geoff Zanelli taking over from composer of the primary themes for the series, Hans Zimmer. Costume designer Penny Rose returned after providing the costumes for all four previous films, along with executive producer Chad Oman.

Speaking to IGN while promoting The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Orlando Bloom indicated that the film might serve as a soft reboot for the franchise, saying: "Basically they want to reboot the whole franchise, I think, and do something with me and the relationship with my son."

Writing

By 2011, shortly before the release of On Stranger Tides, Terry Rossio was writing a script for a fifth film without his partner Ted Elliott. Rossio's draft was ultimately rejected. "My version of Dead Men Tell No Tales was set aside because it featured a female villain," recalled Rossio, "and Johnny Depp was worried that would be redundant to Dark Shadows, which also featured a female villain." In January 2013, Disney hired Jeff Nathanson to work on a script. That September, producer Bruckheimer said, "We have an outline everyone loves but the script is not done," explaining that the release would be postponed beyond summer 2015.

On April 13, 2014, Depp said Bruckheimer and Disney had invited him in to collaborate with the writer Jeff Nathanson, noting:

Everyone involved wants the script to be right and perfect. So we have gone on to do other things [in the meantime]. We are still going to do the film together. I enjoy them immensely. They are super talented. They have a great sense of humor. I think they have a really fun approach to what we are going to do with the next Pirates. Very happily and proudly, I have welcomed taking part in the story and working directly with the screenwriter [Jeff Nathanson]—he and I. It's working out really well that way. So I have high hopes for that Pirates 5 because if that's really the last one, which it probably is, I feel that we owe it to the audience who went and saw the films so many times. We'll do it right and end it on a high note.

Casting

Speaking at the On Stranger Tides press launch in Cannes, Depp said he would play the role for as long as it is popular with the public. In August 2012 news surfaced that Johnny Depp signed on officially for the fifth film, earning A$90 million to reprise his role. As with the fourth film, Depp was also involved in scripting and planning Dead Men Tell No Tales. Geoffrey Rush had commented on returning as Hector Barbossa in the fifth installment, saying "If they keep shapeshifting this character, absolutely" as well as implying he may return as the villain. He also said that Barbossa's megalomania "could explode in horrific ways." In December 2014, Rush confirmed his return for the fifth installment, where Barbossa and Jack were "at the heart of it and there's a whole new set of story lines." In late 2011, about four years after choosing not to return for the fourth installment, Orlando Bloom stated that he would like to return for the fifth film if he was offered. On May 11, 2011, Naomie Harris expressed her desire to return as Tia Dalma if they called her. Several weeks after Disney officially green-lit the film, Bloom stated that there were "discussions" about his return to the franchise in September 2014. Bloom further commented in December 2014, that while he was not sure whether he would return, there were talks. He also indicated that Disney could do a soft reboot with the franchise and focus on Will Turner and his son. After months of speculation and after filming wrapped up, Bloom's participation was confirmed at Disney D23 on August 15, 2015.

On December 2, 2013, it was reported that Christoph Waltz was in talks to appear as the film's main antagonist, but he finally declined. Australian actor Brenton Thwaites entered talks for the role of Henry in late November 2014, after Disney choose him over Taron Egerton, George MacKay, Mitchell Hope, Ansel Elgort and Sam Keeley. In mid-January 2015, he stated that he was to travel to Australia for the film in February, disclosing that his role was indeed that of Davy Jones' son, struggling to break a curse to meet his father. The shortlist of actresses for the female lead consisted of Gabriella Wilde, Kaya Scodelario, Alexandra Dowling, Jenna Thiam and Lucy Boynton. On January 24, Jerry Bruckheimer announced via Twitter that Kaya Scodelario had won the role. In July, her character was revealed to be called Carina. In earlier drafts of the script the name Carina Smyth appeared as Barbossa's daughter and was a love interest of Sparrow's and was an astronomer accused of being a witch. Scodelario confirmed that the character was an astronomer and that “she's a totally different character,” to Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Swann, and also confirmed that Smyth will be Henry's love interest instead Jack's. By October 2014, Javier Bardem, husband of Penélope Cruz, who portrayed Angelica in the fourth installment, was in early talks to appear as the antagonist of the film. His role was eventually confirmed to be that of Armando Salazar, who in early scripts was referred as Captain John Brand. However, during an interview with Collider in 2012, Penélope Cruz stated that she would most likely not reprise her role as Angelica Teach. Kevin McNally confirmed his return as Joshamee Gibbs via Twitter in late January. Shortly after on location pre-production opened in Australia, Disney issued a casting call to local agents for actors from all age- and experience levels to apply for roles and as extras in the upcoming film, with casting also open in the US. Adam Brown, Delroy Atkinson, Danny Kirrane were revealed as cast members shortly before filming. Martin Klebba confirmed his return as Marty via Twitter days before filming began. On February 17, 2015, Stephen Graham revealed that he will reprise his role as Scrum. On September 24, 2015, a YouTube video was uploaded stating that Giles New and Angus Barnett would reprise their roles as Murtogg and Mullroy. Director Joachim Rønning's two children appear in the film as extras. Also, Keith Richards expressed interest in reprising his role as Captain Teague. Additionally, Greg Ellis expressed interest in reprising his role as Theodore Groves, despite his character's apparent death in the previous film, saying the possibility that Groves survived. Apart of this declarations, reports that a deceased Navy officer will star in the film, had sparked many rumors regarding the possibility of the return of James Norrington (portrayed again by Jack Davenport), who died in the third film.

Both Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook commented on the possibility of returning as Pintel and Ragetti. Arenberg confirmed in several interviews that, despite wanting to return to the fourth film, he hoped to reprise his role as Pintel. In an interview on November 7, 2014, Crook confirmed that he had received a call of availability from Disney for the film, although stated that the uncertainty of whether he wanted to reprise his role. Crook declined to reprise his role ultimately, in order to focus on his television series Detectorists. He said he felt "pangs of nostalgia," when the cast and crew filmed the film without him. Furthermore, shortly before filming started, Arenberg announced on Twitter that he would not reprise his role as well, despite having been interested in doing so.

Filming

On January 15, 2014, directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg confirmed that shooting would take place in Puerto Rico and New Orleans and Bruckheimer had previously mentioned that there might be a sequence in Louisiana. However, a spokesman for the Australian Arts Minister George Brandis confirmed that the fifth installment was set to shoot exclusively in Australia after the government agreed to repurpose $20 million of tax incentives originally intended for the remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, thus edging out Mexico and South Africa as filming locations. According to Australian film industry sources, on location pre-production started in late September 2014 and its cost is above $350 million. This was officially confirmed by Disney and the Queensland Arts Minister on October 2, 2014, stating that filming will take place exclusively in Queensland, Australia, being the largest production to ever shoot in the country. Village Roadshow Studios and Port Douglas were officially confirmed as filming locations. On January 1, 2015, The Rainbow Gypsy, a 15-year-old replica of an 1897 Scottish bawley, sailed into the Gold Coast to start the extensive refit, which will include a new bowsprit and reconfigured decks and cabins in order to become the Dying Gull, a single-masted ghost ship. Its captain and owner Kit Woodward will be a rigger on the film.

Filming commenced on February 17, 2015. Ship scenes were filmed in front of a giant outdoor greenscreen in Helensvale, while a film set in the form of a village was built in Maudsland. Filming moved to Doug Jennings Park on The Spit from March 30 to June 15, 2015 for water bound scenes. However, due to extreme sea sickness among the cast and crew due to "big swells" at The Spit, filming moved to Raby Bay for calmer waters. Scenes were shot at Lennox Head on June 1. Locals made up more than 75 percent of the 850-plus crew then working on the film. After much speculation about whether Orlando Bloom would return, Bloom arrived at the Gold Coast in late May to reprise his role as Will Turner. Scenes featuring a skeleton of a Sperm Whale that had been constructed were shot at Hastings Point from June 21 to 23.

A number of issues and controversies set back the film during its production. The biosecurity laws in Australia posed problems regarding the capuchin monkeys that portray Hector Barbossa's pet monkey Jack, as the animals are regarded as a category 1 pest and require strict requirements and a 30-day quarantine. Further controversy surrounding the use of the monkeys erupted from animal rights activist groups, who urged the Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to reject the application to fly two capuchin monkeys from California to Australia, arguing that the trip would "harm the monkeys’ health, that movie performances are unnatural for wild creatures and that the appearance of monkeys in films encourages the illegal wildlife trade." One of the monkeys caused further disruption when it wandered off set at Movie World and bit a make up artist on another production on the ear. Crew and cast members were forced to cover the camera lenses on all mobile phones with duct tape to prevent the film from being pirated before its release. To prevent fans from interfering with the production, secret filming locations used the production name of 'Herschel' to hide the fact it was the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film. Following the attempt of an armed man trying to bypass security, the already tight security was increased.

On March 10, 2015, Depp was injured (not on set) and had to be flown back to the United States for surgery. Due to his absence, filming stalled completely and 200 crew members were forced to stand down for two weeks as they had done all they had been able to without Depp. Filming was set to resume "on or about April 20" and Depp returned to set on April 21. In June, Kaya Scodelario was injured on set along with a stuntman.

Most of the cast and crew had finished on the 8th, and a wrap party was held on July 11, 2015. Filming then moved to the Whitsundays for the final shots to be filmed. On July 21, 2015, Joachim Rønning announced via Instagram that filming has wrapped after a 95-day shoot. After nearly a year in post production, reshoots and additional photography was conducted in Vancouver, Canada from March 24 to April 13, 2016 under the production title "Herschel Additional Photography".

Music

For the first time in the series since Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (which he co-wrote with Klaus Badelt), Hans Zimmer is not composing the music for the film. Instead, one of his protégés, Geoff Zanelli, who worked on all previous four installments in the franchise, is the main composer for the film. Zanelli said of taking over from Zimmer as composer for the series, "What Hans did for the Pirates movies redefined the sound of the entire genre, it has been very fulfilling to work alongside him and [producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer] on the past four films. Dead Men Tell No Tales enlarges the Pirates universe with many new, unique elements, and I'm building a distinctive sound for this film that springboards off of many years of collaborating in the Pirates world."

Release

In several countries, the film is set to be released as Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge, including English-speaking countries.

Marketing

The film was first showcased at the Disney D23 Expo 2015 where Depp appeared in costume as Jack Sparrow and the film's logo was revealed with Orlando Bloom confirmed to be starring in the film. Elizabeth Rudnick has been self-confirmed to novelize the film, as well as describing the film as bringing back "sensibility" plus bringing back Jack Sparrow in "all of his swaggering glory." Another book is set to be released by Disney, a tie-in prequel expanding the backstory of the character of Carina Smythe, titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Brightest Star in the North. The film was also showcased at the Walt Disney Content Showcase in Africa in 2016 where concept art, story details and on set images were previewed. The first teaser trailer was released on October 2, 2016, during Fear the Walking Dead and showcased Armando Salazar hunting for Jack Sparrow who doesn't appear in the trailer except only his image on a wanted poster. On January 27, 2017, Disney uploaded an eight-second motion poster to their official Instagram account for the release of a TV spot of the film during Super Bowl LI. Disney then released a 30-second television teaser at Super Bowl LI, with an extended version released online set to Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave". The trailer was considered to be the "big" trailer of the event and was the most viewed trailer of all the films advertised at the halftime show. A new teaser poster was also released with the trailer. Both teasers received a highly positive reaction from audiences. The official trailer was released on March 2, 2017.

Future

The official trailer of the film had indicated that Dead Men Tell No Tales will be the last film of the Pirates franchise. However, on March 4, 2017, director Joachim Rønning stated that Dead Men was only the beginning of the final adventure, implying that a sixth film could be made. Also, it was said that Michelle Keegan had signed to appear in a sixth Pirates film.

External links

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales on IMDb
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales at Box Office Mojo