How "Pirates of the Caribbean" was created, which turned 20 years old (14 photos)

2003 was a very fruitful year for good films: “The Return of the King”, “Boomer”, “Finding Nemo”, “Bruce Almighty” and, of course, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”.







Attraction "Pirates of the Caribbean"

In the early 1990s, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio decided to revive the pirate film genre. It was they who proposed to the Disney studio to make a film based on an attraction from Disneyland called “Pirates of the Caribbean.”





Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman in Captain Hook (1991)

Spielberg himself liked the script. He wanted to direct it, and planned to cast Robin Williams, Bill Murray or Steve Martin for the role of the pirate Jack Sparrow. In the early 90s, Steven Spielberg just released a movie about pirates, Captain Hook (a tale about Peter Pan in a new way) with Robin Williams in the title role. The film performed well at the box office, but the director was dissatisfied with his work and decided to stop working with pirates. But Disney didn't like Spielberg's concept, and the project was shelved again.

In the early 2000s, they remembered about “Pirates”. New screenwriter Jay Wolpert reworked the script. In that version of the story, prison guard Will Turner frees Jack Sparrow from prison to help him save his beloved Elizabeth from the pirate Black Heart.



Hugh Jackman played a pirate in the film Pan: Journey to Neverland (2015)

The studio again didn't like the script. They decided to make a low-budget film and release it on DVD. The new version was written by Australian Stuart Beattie. He wrote the script with the expectation that Sparrow would be played by Hugh Jackman.



Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp

In 2002, the script fell into the hands of Jerry Bruckheimer. He attracted the work of the authors of the original version of "Pirates", who brought the plot to marketable form. Director Gore Verbinski was also Bruckheimer's choice. For the main role, Verbinski wanted to take Matthew McConaughey, who reminded him of Burt Lancaster in the film “The Red Corsair,” one of the best pirate films in his opinion.



On the left is Burt Lancaster in "The Red Corsair", on the right is Matthew McConnachie from the early 2000s.

The studio needed a bigger star. Jim Carrey, Christopher Walken, and Michael Keaton were considered for the role of Sparrow. In the end, they decided on Johnny Depp, although CEO Michael Eisner was not enthusiastic about this idea.



Adam Ant and Keith Richards

Depp decided that the pirates were a kind of rock stars of their time, so he borrowed the plasticity from Keith Richards, guitarist of The Rolling Stones, and the appearance from the British rocker Adam Ant.

Johnny Dep wanted Sparrow to have a sewn-on nose. The actor came up with the idea that the pirate lost his nose in a fight, they sewed it back on, but the nose did not take root well, so it turned blue, and Sparrow is afraid of pepper more than anything in the world, so as not to sneeze and lose his nose a second time. Verbinski did not appreciate this idea.



Sparrow had a real pistol, manufactured in 1760. It was found in one of the antique stores in New England. But the hats were rubber - too often Depp dropped his hats overboard, so they had to be made unsinkable.



Jude Law, Tobey Maguire, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Ewan McGregor were considered for the role of Will Turner. In the end, they decided to take Orlando Bloom, since he then starred in the super popular “The Lord of the Rings,” which means his name in the credits could contribute to the box office.



Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa

It is curious that the role of Barbossa was offered to Robert De Niro, but he refused, believing that the film would not be a success. De Niro would later play a pirate in Stardust.



Geoffrey Rush on the left, as he wanted

Verbinski said that he would have dreamed of seeing Alec Guinness (Obi Wan in A New Hope) or Peter Sellers (Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther) in the role of Barbossa, but by that time they were no longer alive. Third on his list was Geoffrey Rush. The actor was flattered to stand on a par with such stars and willingly accepted the offer, setting only one condition - in joint scenes with Keira Knightley he must be on the left. He reasoned that otherwise no one would notice him.

By the way, Keira Knightley was only 17 years old at the time of filming the first film. That's why her mother accompanied her everywhere. For some reason, the actress was sure that she would be quickly fired and took only enough things with her for a couple of days.

One day, returning from a night shoot on a Caribbean island, Keira Knightley, her mother and skipper almost drowned - their boat ran into a reef. They were rescued, but Verbinski canceled all night filming after this incident.



The first "Pirates" were mainly filmed in real seas and oceans (and the last parts were filmed on a blue screen). The film crew did not have time to reserve the giant pool in which Titanic was filmed in order to make their work somewhat easier. The team from the film “Master of the Seas” was ahead of them.



"Country Bears" (2001)

If Pirates had started filming a couple of months later, we would never have seen it. The fact is that after the failure of the musical film "Country Bears", also based on the attraction from Deaneyland, the producers lost the last remnants of faith in the "Pirates". In addition, Michael Eisner was terribly annoyed by Johnny Depp. But Verbinski had already filmed quite a lot of material, so there was no point in closing the film.



Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley at the world premiere of the first "Pirates"

The finished film was rated PG-13 for the first time in Disney film history (children under 13 must be accompanied by a parent) and premiered at Disneyland for the first time in Disney film history (June 28, 2003). The producers' fears were not confirmed. Pirates of the Caribbean became the fourth highest-grossing film of 2003, behind The Return of the King, Finding Nemo, and The Matrix Part II. All five films in the franchise ultimately grossed $4.5 billion worldwide. They say that Johnny Depp and Disney are not against making a sixth film.