NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > DISNEY TO WALK THE PLANK ON NEW PIRATES MOVIE

DISNEY TO WALK THE PLANK ON NEW PIRATES MOVIE

Hollywood, CA –The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films have been one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood history. With over $2.5 billion in its collective booty, there was little doubt that Disney was going to do everything it could to continue the series after the latest film seemed to wrap up the storyline. Last September the studio made
that desire official with the signing of Johnny Depp for a fourth film in the series, tentatively scheduled for release in 2012. Now though, real life events may have put a damper on those plans.

Occasionally Hollywood can mirror real life in unplanned and occasionally uncomfortable ways. The release of ‘The China Syndrome’ in 1979 mirrored real life in the form of Three Mile Island; the stock market crash of 1987 was followed only months later by the hit ‘Wall Street’. Now, with real life piracy dominating the news, executives at Disney have
become suddenly hesitant to continue their blockbuster franchise for fears that it may bring uncomfortable questions to the production.

“Undertaking any major project such as a motion picture the people involved need to make a very thorough cost versus benefit appraisal. Things like ROI, positioning against other releases, and the overall political position of the studio. In this case it may be an issue of the latter with the Mouse House not wanting to walk the plank into deeper water,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “The studio doesn’t want to be seen as promoting piracy or giving pirates any kind of training template with which to conduct further attacks. While it’s true that modern pirates and those portrayed in the ‘Pirates’ movies are quite different, it wouldn’t take a lot for someone to draw a connection between the two and that could be what’s causing the hesitation.”

Though officially still alive, executives at Disney are reportedly taking a deeper look into the progress of the script and are considering plundering the budget to limit risk. Rumours that the recently killed Somali pirates were major Johnny Depp fans have not yet been confirmed, or disconfirmed.

“Because of contracts and a desire to keep the brand alive chances are they are going to go ahead with the movie but it is likely they will remove some of the more expensive scenes so that is a backlash does occur their liability will be limited,” continued Temple. “Luckily for them, fans of the franchise will flock to the theatres to see the movie no matter how much they extract from the final product because, well let’s just face it they will. It’s Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow after all.”

The current financial crisis is also weighing heavily on Disney’s decision making process as well, though not out of strictly monetary concerns. The decline in advertising revenue and the subsequent death of numerous news outlets has created a high seas-style battle between the existing news outlets. That desperation has led to an increase in extreme journalism which is of grave concern to many in Hollywood.

“They are waters that one has to navigate in order to be successful but they are very
dangerous waters, just as dangerous as the Caribbean on the Gulf of Aden have ever been only in this case there is a lot more booty at stake,” continued Temple. “Add to that the increase of piracy in the studio’s own backyard and what at first may have seemed an innocent little romp in the Caribbean will have turned into an all out assault on Hollywood treasure chests. No studio in Hollywood is going to want to have people step on their toes and make money for other people to steal, that’s their job.”

It should also be noted that all the members of the pirate ship killed yesterday were teenagers, the target audience for the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films.

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent

NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > DISNEY TO WALK THE PLANK ON NEW PIRATES MOVIE

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