On Stranger Tides star Johnny Depp with executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer on the set. Bruckheimer has steered the Disney franchise to $2.7 billion in worldwide grosses to date, and the films have fueled everything from Disneyland tickets to huge merchandising deals.
A July 2009 meeting between Depp, Bruckheimer and director Rob Marshall ironed out the basics of the plot, and a deal was struck to bring the franchise to the big screen once more.
Rob Marshall worried about Johnny Depp's safety, especially when he fell into unexpectedly deep waters.
Veteran British actor Ian McShane (Deadwood) plays the villianous pirate Blackbeard. The basic storyline for On Stranger Tides — including Blackbeard and the search for the Fountain of Youth — were brought over from an original book of the same name by Tim Powers.
Merging elements of Powers' book with the universe of the previous films fell to franchise vets Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio — a task that was interrupted by the 2007-08 WGA strike.
Star Johnny Depp was heavily involved in conceptualizing the film. Says Depp: "One of the reasons On Stranger Tides took this amount of time was to really focus on what we could do to make it interesting and new and fresh and not just rehash the same jokes."
Among Depp's ideas: Bringing in an official Spanish contingent to follow the heroes. He also urged the writers to turn a swahsbuckling character (played by Sam Claflin) into a missionary, lending the storyline a spiritual dimension.
Johnny Depp with Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, who co-starred in all three previous films as Capt. Hector Barbossa. A sometime friend, sometime foe of Depp's Jack Sparrow, in On Stranger Tides Barbossa is now a privateer, a pirate in service of the king.
The two actors are new to the "Pirates" franchise, replacing Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.
Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow on location in London. The 106-day shoot for On Stranger Tides included time in London, Los Angeles and Hawaii, a crew of more than 1,000, 1,122 CGI effects shots and a crammed postproduction schedule only half as long as the filmmakers desired.
A 3D RED camera on a crane shoots the Queen Anne's Revenge off Oahu.
Marshall spent a week filming a chase sequence at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England.
On Stranger Tides lensed in Hawaii in the same jungle where Steven Spielberg shot Jurassic Park.
Recalls Marshall: "I remember standing on a cliff talking to Johnny and Penelope, who were below — and I slipped." With nobody to grab him. Marshall hurtled toward the precipice. Luckily, "I grabbed a vine just before I plunged. I would have been dead."
(From left) Penelope Cruz as Angelica, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Ian McShane as Blackbeard.
With the film in the can and Disney making final preparations for the May 20 release, THR asked Depp if a fifth film is a possibility (a script is in the works). Depp was keen to wait a bit. "They should be special, just like they're special to me."
Read THR's review of On Stranger Tides
More on the making of On Stranger Tides
GALLERY: On Stranger Tides premiere party