‘Pirates of the Caribbean' Producer Spoke to Johnny Depp About Jack Sparrow's Return in ‘Pirates 6': ‘If He Likes the Way the Part's Written, I Think He Would Do It'
'If he likes the way the part's written, I think he would do it,' Bruckheimer told EW. 'It's all about what's on the page, as we all know… We are still working on a screenplay. We want to make it. We just got to get the right screenplay. We haven't quite gotten there yet, but we're close.'
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Depp headlined five 'Pirates' movies from 2003 to 2017, all of which grossed more than $650 million at the worldwide box office. 2006's 'Dead Man's Chest' and 2011's 'On Stranger Tides' both topped the $1 billion mark. His future with the Disney-backed series has been a question mark following his legal troubles and his 2022 libel trial against Amber Heard. With Depp now mounting a Hollywood comeback with the Lionsgate action-thriller 'Day Drinker,' it's only put more speculation over whether Disney would welcome him back him (and vice versa). With Depp front and center, the 'Pirates' movies have collectively grossed $4.5 billion.
The road to a new 'Pirates' movie has been a long one. Variety reported in summer 2020 that Disney was in early development on two 'Pirates' movies: A reboot led by Margot Robbie and a sixth film in the original franchise written by Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott, the latter of whom co-wrote the first four 'Pirates' movies. Robbie ended up telling Vanity Fair in November 2022 that Disney was not interested in her 'more of a female-led' movie, although Bruckheimer downplayed the claim by later telling EW there's still room for both 'Pirates' movies to exist and 'I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too.'
As for the other 'Pirates' movie, Bruckheimer told EW last summer that screenwriter Jeff Nathanson had boarded the project. Nathanson wrote the script for the last 'Pirates' movie, 2017's 'Dead Men Tell No Tales.'
'He's cracked it,' Bruckheimer said at the time of Nathanson's script. 'He's got an amazing third act. We just gotta clean up the first and second and then we'll get there. But he wrote a great, great third act.'
Whether or not Nathanson's script is a new draft of Mazin's or an entirely original screenplay remains to be seen. Mazin told the Los Angeles Times last year that his script for 'Pirates 6″ was so weird he was surprised Disney signed off on it, adding: 'We pitched it and thought there's no way they're buying it, it's too weird. And they did! And then we wrote a fantastic script and the strike happened and everyone's waiting around.'
Bruckheimer also said last summer that he would be open to bringing Depp back for the Nathanson-penned movie, explaining: 'It's a reboot, but if it was up to me, [Johnny] would be in it. I love him. He's a good friend. He's an amazing artist and he's a unique look. He created Captain Jack. That was not on the page, that was him doing a little Pepé Le Pew and Keith Richards. That was his interpretation of Jack Sparrow.'
Depp's last Hollywood studio movie was 2018's 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.' He had just finished his first day of filming the sequel, 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,' when Warner Bros. asked him to exit the movie a day after he lost his 2020 libel trial against The Sun. The actor sued the U.K. publication for referring to him as a 'wife beater,' but the court ruled this characterization of Depp was 'substantially true.' Depp was eventually recast in the sequel with Mads Mikkelsen.
A second trial centered on Depp took place in the U.S. in 2022 after Depp sued ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post in which she referred to herself as 'a figure representing domestic abuse.' The outcome of this trial was more in Depp's favor, as the jury ultimately ruled that Heard did defame Depp in the op-ed (although the jury also ruled that Depp defamed Heard in the course of fighting back against her charges).Best of Variety
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