'Pirates' Director Passes on Fourth Movie

It's three and done for director Gore Verbinski, who has decided he won't continue leading the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Variety also reports that the film is scheduled to go into production next year, and we already know Johnny Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow. Instead of taking another cruise on the Black Pearl, Verbinski will hitch his wagon to Bioshock, the videogame adapation he's been developing for several months, and one that fans of the genre are no doubt looking forward to being one of the better entries in the category. Still, it had to be tough to turn down all that money, and believe me, there's more money in a Pirates 4 than the first Bioshock movie. But Verbinski seems OK with that. "I had a fantastic time bringing Pirates to life, and I am eternally grateful to Jerry [Bruckheimer], Johnny and the rest of the creative and production team," Verbinski said. "I'm looking forward to all of us crossing paths again in the future." I like Verbinski as a director. It's tough to qualify either of the Pirates sequels as anything but sequels, but the first one is great, The Ring resurrected the intelligent, gore-free horror movie, and I thought The Weather Man was underrated. I also like that he's taking the opportunity to do something new instead of cashing the biggest check. Bioshock will definitely be a huge challenge.

Comments

[Duelly.]

The first Pirates was great. I liked the 2nd one too... Until I realized it was just setting up the 3rd one, which was an aastounding pile of shit. Why did they have to go so "epic?" It just got too up its own ass on some grand scale. It was obnoxious.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Piirates II and III were just running on fumes. I guess they were so loud to draw attention to the fact that there wasn't much of a coherent story. It's like some people who put a very loud horn on a scrappy car.