3Home pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the black pearl production notes
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 Chapter 2: Taking the Swashbuckler Genre to a New Level |
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 The thrilling tale of a daring rescue mission aimed at reversing an ancient curse, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” is an irreverent wink at the famous Disney theme park attraction.When the idea was first presented to the production executives at Disney Studios, they could think of only one producer able to handle the scope and intricacies of such an undertaking. Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Dick Cook, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Nina Jacobson, President of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, initially approached Jerry Bruckheimer to orchestrate this extravaganza, and Jerry was only too anxious to get underway. He has always wanted to make a motion picture about pirates.
“I loved watching pirate pictures as a kid,” says Bruckheimer. “`Treasure Island,' `Captain Blood' and `The Black Pirate' were some of my favorites. Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks were formidable, and although their movies are still exciting and very watchable today, I thought we could add some extra pizzazz to a popular theme.
“I think we take the swashbuckler genre to a new level,” he adds. “This has all the thrills and romance that you would expect from a big adventure.”
Bruckheimer-who knows better than anyone what it takes to bring `big adventure' to the big screen-began assembling his team. “We brought in Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, two wonderful writers who created a hit with `Shrek,'” he continues. “They brought in the element of the supernatural, which gave the story an edge that interested me. Anything I'm interested in seeing, I'm interested in making.”
A trademark of Jerry Bruckheimer Films productions, writers are involved in every step of the production process. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were on set at all times during production.
“The experience Terry and I had is what every single writer dreams of,” Ted Elliott says. “For a writer, being on set every day is unheard of. From beginning to end, it was terrific. To be able to talk to the director, the producer, the actors and even someone like the Walt Disney Pictures Presents makeup artist, to ask questions and find out why things are done a certain way, was such a wonderful education. It was gratifying to realize the imagination and creativity each crew member put into the movie. From set design to costumes and makeup, seeing the production unfold on set was better than anything we made up and put on paper.”
His partner agrees. “Jerry gave Gore such freedom, and Gore was confident enough with his ideas that he had no problem being collaborative,” says Terry Rossio. “We just knew the approach we wanted to take; we knew we wanted these characters and these specific moments in the story. We wanted it to be a very classic, Jane Austen-style, bodice-ripping romance.
“Ted and I actually worked very closely with Jerry, Mike Stenson and Chad Oman; they were instrumental in developing the story,” recalls Rossio. “Writers don't often have that kind of consistent, involved access to producers, and producers are not necessarily as knowledgeable as these guys are about structure and dialogue.”
“This project was charmed from the beginning,” says Mike Stenson. “Ted and Terry are the absolute masters of this type of storytelling, and it turned out they had always wanted to do the feature version of `Pirates.' They even sang the theme song the first time we met.”
Elliott and Rossio will tell you that timing is everything. They pitched an idea for a pirate movie almost ten years earlier after completing work on “Aladdin,” but there was no interest from any studio. Undeterred, the writing team refused to give up the dream, keeping their concept on a back burner, convinced that the combination of romance, adventure and mystery would one day become popular again.
Actor Johnny Depp was unhesitatingly confident that the writing duo could handle the job and make a childhood dream come true. “Isn't it every boy's dream to be a pirate and get away with basically anything?” Depp asks rhetorically. “Who wouldn want to play a pirate?”
It wasn't purely boyish exuberance that factored into Depp's decision to accept the role of Captain Jack Sparrow; he was wholeheartedly confident in the quality of the project when he learned of Elliott and Rossio's participation. “The second I heard that Ted and Terry were writing the script, I knew we were in good shape,” Depp says. “With Jerry's background and Gore's intense focus, I knew the film had strong shoulders to stand on. When I read Ted and Terry's screenplay, I was pleasantly surprised; they'd exceeded my expectations. They brought a great amount of humor to the story and created building blocks for the actors to elaborate, to really stretch the character.”
With a script in place, Bruckheimer was now on the hunt for a director. “My agent called and said, `How do you feel about a pirate movie?' I mean, how often are you going to get that call?,” recalls Gore Verbinski, who most recently directed “The Ring.”
Bruckheimer had attempted to hire Verbinski several years earlier, but schedules would not allow. “I had met him early on in his career and thought he was very talented after seeing his commercial reel,” says the producer. “But somebody got to him before I could and he went off to make `Mouse Hunt.'”
“We talked quite a bit over the last few years about trying to find a project to work on together,” adds Verbinski. “I am thoroughly entertained by his films. I am there with the popcorn, getting my money's worth every time I go to a Jerry Bruckheimer picture.”
“We were lucky to sign Gore right before `The Ring' came out,” comments Bruckheimer. “This film is perfect for him because we encouraged him to use his wonderful sense of humor and his great storytelling skills. And because it has elements of the supernatural, Gore got to use lots of visual effects. His enthusiasm is like a little kid's. He loves to work with actors, and actors love him. We were fortunate because he really was the perfect director for this project.”
Mike Stenson echoes Bruckheimer's praise. “Gore's combination of visual style, technical expertise and humor made him our first and only choice as a director. He said yes the first meeting as well.”
A fan of “Captain Blood,” “The Crimson Pirate,” “The Black Pirate” and other pirate movies in his younger days, Verbinski was sold on the concept. “There's something rebellious and revolutionary about piracy,” he says. “Pirates came out of a time when things were oppressive and people were hung for simply stealing a piece of bread, so what have you got to lose. For me, the film's about breaking the rules, and when it's appropriate to break the rules to get what you want. All the characters ultimately try to obtain their desires through piracy, through the good and the bad aspects of that.”
Elliott and Rossio presented Verbinski their outline, and the director liked what he heard. It was the element of the curse in the story that, in Verbinski's words, “was really an opportunity to turn the movie on its head and open it up as a genre.
“When I first heard the pitch from Ted and Terry, what I liked about it was that it was a terrificw perversion of the classic tale,” says Verbinski. “I came in asking, `What is the standard plot structure? Is it a kidnapping? Is it buried treasure?' When actually, it has all of these qualities, yet the principle one is reversed. It is a film about finding the last piece of treasure and putting it back. Barbossa and his pirates need to return the last piece of cursed treasure so they can feel the pleasures of the flesh-and-blood world. The curse has allowed Barbossa and his pirates to keep the currency and to continue their villainy, but they're not able to enjoy it.”
Verbinski began prepping and storyboarding the movie from Elliott and Rossio's outline. “It's no way to prep a movie, especially one that's shot on water,” the director laughs. “We just kind of hit the ground running. It was chaos.”
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