Strong introduction, inner drive, obstacles, swagger, etc. I would say we transcended gender stereotypes in the best way, in that we simply wrote a female protagonist using the exact same techniques as for a male lead. Just Ted and myself, along with the producers, Chad Oman and Mike Stenson. How important was creating a strong female lead to you and your fellow writers? We were writing specifically to woo Johnny Depp to the film.Īs for Keira Knightley’s character, Elizabeth Swann is depicted as quite an independent woman who resists being the damsel in distress. What role did casting play in writing the script?
The first movie had quite a bit of shuffling with different actors for Jack Sparrow. Inside 2003's Lavish $2 Million 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Disneyland Premiere These pirate films are really ghost stories set in a world of pirates. Once you buy into sword-fighting skeletons, the eye patch, buried treasure and monkeys are not such a big deal. So we insisted on the supernatural, ghost story, gothic horror aspect, which is consistent with many tales of the sea. We knew that audiences would resist talking parrots, peg legs and other pirate tropes that are a bit goofy and not cool. What aspect of development do you think helped contribute to that success? This movie somewhat restored faith in the pirates genre at the box office.
We were certain we were writing the last pirate film that would ever be made. What kind of pressure did you feel to bounce back from that? Was there a moment you worried about the fate of Pirates? The Curse of the Black Pearl was coming off the heels of 2002’s The Country Bears, based on another Disneyland attraction, which unfortunately did not do well at the box office. “Yes! When the budget gets tight, we just put a cloud in front of the moon!” And that’s what we did. “What if the pirates are skeletons at night, but only when the moon comes out? Can we get away with that?” They loved it. I was sitting at the table and laughed out loud. We couldn’t afford for the pirates to be skeletons all night long.
With all the nighttime fight scenes, CGI was expensive at the time. Rossio revealed that high production costs and the infancy of computer-generated imagery influenced the plot of the future blockbuster the Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley starrer went on to gross $305.4 million domestically.īut the producers shook their heads. Bewitched by a curse, they transform into living skeletons under moonlight.īut it turns out, this creative decision was not what the writers of the live-action adaptation of the Disneyland ride initially wanted.Īs the fifth movie Dead Men Tell No Tales hits theaters May 26, Heat Vision spoke to longtime Pirates writer Terry Rossio about launching the franchise 14 years ago. After the Endeavour's destruction and Beckett's death, Wyvern would likely leave the Dutchman's crew.Fan of the skeletal scallywags in Pirates of the Caribbean? You can thank the film’s tight budget for the bony, motley crew.Ģ003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl follows a rambunctious group of pirates off the coast of Port Royal, Jamaica. Wyvern was onboard the Flying Dutchman when it teamed up with the Black Pearl to destroy the East India Trading company flagship, the HMS Endeavour. Wyvern and the rest of the crew would then regain their human forms, no longer owing anything to Jones. Following Davy Jones' death and Will Turner's inauguration as the Dutchman's captain, the ship was consumed by the whirlpool. He told them that the Dutchman must always have a captain, as someone had to keep the key. He briefly argued with himself over whether or not to stab the heart, before giving the Turners some information on the chest. Wyvern himself soon came suddenly out of the wall upon mention of the Dead Man's Chest and the key that unlocked it. When Bootstrap was explaining the transformation the crewmen went through, he gestured to Wyvern. His mind was slowly fading away, along with his body.
By 1729, Wyvern had served most of his one hundred year debt and had merged with the ship. During his years of service, Wyvern would at some point make the acquaintance of Bootstrap Bill Turner. Half of his face was gone, leaving his brain visible. Wyvern's body resembled that of an old skeleton. Wyvern's physical and mental state, overtime, would slowly transform during his time aboard the vessel. It is unknown how he ended up serving a one hundred year debt to Jones, but he would nevertheless soon become a loyal member of the Dutchman's crew. Wyvern was a crewman serving aboard the Flying Dutchman under the fearsome Captain Davy Jones.