Producer Jerry Brukenheimer has always wanted to be a pirate king. In Hollywood that is. Making a film about pirates.
"I loved watching pirate pictures as a kid," says Bruckheimer. `Treasure Island,' 'Captain Blood' and 'The Black Pirate' were some of my favourites. Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks were formidable, and although their movies are still exciting and very watchable today, I thought we could add some extra pizzazz to a popular theme."
The thrilling tale of a daring rescue mission aimed at reversing an ancient curse, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is an irreverent wink at the famous Disney theme park attraction. When the idea was first presented to the production executives at Disney Studios, they could think of only one producer able to handle the scope and intricacies of such an undertaking. Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of the Wait Disney Company, Dick Cook, Chairman of Wait Disney Studios, and Nina Jacobson, President of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, initially approached Jerry Bruckheimer to orchestrate this extravaganza, and Jerry was only too anxious to get underway.
"I think we take the swashbuckler genre to a new level," he adds. "This has all the thrills and romance that you would expect from a big adventure."
Bruckheimer-who knows better than anyone what it takes to bring 'big adventure' to the big screen- began assembling his team. "We brought in Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, two wonderful writers who created a hit with 'Shrek,` he continues. 'They brought in the element of the supernatural, which gave the story an edge that interested me. Anything I'm interested in seeing, I'm interested in making."
A trademark of Jerry Bruckheimer Films productions, writers are involved in every step of the production process. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were on set at all times during production.
"The experience Terry and I had is what every single writer dreams of," Ted Elliott says. "For a writer, being on set every day is unheard of. From beginning to end, it was terrific. To be able to talk to the director, the producer, the actors and even someone like the makeup artist, to ask questions and find out why things are done a certain way, was such a wonderful education. It was gratifying to realise the imagination and creativity each crew member put into the movie. From set design to costumes and makeup, seeing the production unfold on set was better than anything we made up and put on paper."
His partner agrees. "Jerry gave Gore such freedom, and Gore was confident enough with his ideas that he had no problem being collaborative," says Terry Rossio. "We just knew the approach we wanted to take; we knew we wanted these characters and these specific moments in the story. We wanted it to be a very classic, Jane Austen-style, bodice-ripping romance.
"Ted and I actually worked very closely with Jerry, Mike Stenson and Chad Oman; they were instrumental in developing the story," recalls Rossio. "Writers don't often have that kind of consistent, involved access to producers, and producers are not necessarily as knowledgeable as these guys are about structure and dialogue."
"This project was charmed from the beginning," says Mike Stenson. "Ted and Terry are the absolute masters of this type of storytelling, and it turned out they had always wanted to do the feature version of 'Pirates.' They even sang the theme song the first time we met."
Elliott and Rossio will tell you that timing is everything. They pitched an idea for a pirate movie almost ten years earlier after completing work on "Aladdin," but there was no interest from any studio. Undeterred, the writing team refused to give up the dream, keeping their concept on a back burner, convinced that the combination of romance, adventure and mystery would one day become popular again.
Actor Johnny Depp was unhesitatingly confident that the writing duo could handle the, job and make a childhood dream come true. "Isn't it every boy's dream to be a pirate and get away with basically anything?" Depp asks rhetorically. "Who wouldn't want to play a pirate?"
It wasn't purely boyish exuberance that factored into Depp's decision to accept the role of Captain Jack Sparrow; he was wholeheartedly confident in the quality of the project when he learned of Elliott and Rossio's participation. "The second I heard that Ted and Terry were writing the script, I knew we were in good shape," Depp says. "When I read Ted and Terry's screenplay, I was pleasantly surprised; they'd exceeded my expectations. They brought a great amount of humour to the story and created building blocks for the actors to elaborate, to really stretch the character."

FINDING A DIRECTOR
With a script in place, Bruckheimer was now on the hunt for a director. "My agent called and said, 'how do you feel about a pirate movie?' I mean, how often are you going to get that call?," recalls Gore Verbinski, who most recently directed The Ring.
Bruckheimer had attempted to hire Verbinski several years earlier, but schedules would not allow. "I had met him early on in his career and thought he was very talented after seeing his commercial reel," says the producer. "But somebody got to him before I could and he went off to make Mouse Hunt.
'"We talked quite a bit over the last few years about trying to find a project to work on together," adds Verbinski. "I am thoroughly entertained by his films. I am there with the popcorn, getting my money's worth every time I go to a Jerry Bruckheimer picture."
"We were lucky to sign Gore right before The Ring came out," comments Bruckheimer. "This film is perfect for him because we encouraged him to use his wonderful sense of humour and his great storytelling skills. And because it has elements of the supernatural, Gore got to use lots of visual effects. His enthusiasm is like a little kid's. He loves to work with actors, and actors love him. We were fortunate because he really was the perfect director for this project."
Mike Stenson echoes Bruckheimer's praise. "Gore's combination of visual style, technical expertise and humour made him our first and only choice as a director. He said yes the first meeting as well."
A fan of "Captain Blood ... .. The Crimson Pirate ... .. The Black Pirate," and other pirate movies in his younger days, Verbinski was sold on the concept. "There's something rebellious and revolutionary about piracy," he says. "Pirates came out of a time when things were oppressive and people were hung for simply stealing a piece of bread, so what have you got to lose. For me, the film's about breaking the rules, and when it's appropriate to break the rules to get what you want. All the characters ultimately try to obtain their desires through piracy, through the good and the bad aspects of that."
Elliott and Rossio presented Verbinski their outline, and the director liked what he heard. It was the element of the curse in the story that, in Verbinski's words, "was really an opportunity to turn the movie on its head and open it up as a genre.
When I first heard the pitch from Ted and Terry, what I liked about it was that it was a terrific perversion of the classic tale," says Verbinski. "I came in asking, 'what is the standard plot structure? Is it a kidnapping? Is it buried treasure?' When actually, it has all of these qualities, yet the principle one is reversed. It is a film about finding the last piece of treasure and putting it back. Barbossa and his pirates need to return the last piece of cursed treasure so they can feel the pleasures of the flesh-and-blood world. The curse has allowed Barbossa and his pirates to keep the currency and to continue their villainy, but they're not able to enjoy it."
Verbinski began prepping and storyboarding the movie from Elliott and Rossio's outline. "It's no way to prep a movie, especially one that's shot on water," the director laughs. "We just kind of hit the ground running. It was chaos."

THE CAST
Casting was the next step for the production. "We always try to populate our movies with great talent," says Jerry Bruckheimer. "And in this one we were lucky enough to combine respected, well-known veterans with several up-and-coming actors. Excellence begets excellence, and with every additional actor we signed, the bar just moved higher and higher."
The way you get an audience to really embrace a movie is to cast against the grain," explains Bruckheimer. "You find someone the audience would never expect to see in a Disney movie.
"I went after Johnny Depp," he says with a knowing grin. "Johnny is an artist who's known to take on quirkier projects. He's a brilliant actor. He's not out to create a fan base for himself, or to simply select work based on salary; it's clear he needs to find a role that gives back to him artistically. I think he also wanted to do something specifically for his kids." Ironically, Depp's character isn't exactly the kind of guy you'd want your kids to emulate. "Jack Sparrow's the type of character that you enjoy watching steal money from a little old lady," says Verbinski. "He is basically a con man-he's lazy, he's a great pirate, but he is not going to fight if he doesn't have to. He's always going to take a shortcut. I think the big thing for Captain Jack Sparrow is his myth. He's kind of his own best agent-he markets himself very well."
Depp was attracted by the opportunity to create a totally new character from scratch. "It was a different kind of role for me. It was a great opportunity to invent this pirate from the ground up, to create a different kind of pirate than you have seen before."
The filmmakers gave the actor free reign to be creative with the character. "Johnny's known for creating his own characters," says Bruckheimer. "He had a definite vision for Jack Sparrow which is completely unique. We just let him go and he came up with this off-center, yet very shrewd pirate. He can't quite hold his balance, his speech is a bit slurred, so you assume he's either drunk, seasick or he's been on a ship too long. But it's all an act perpetrated for effect. And strange as it seems, it's also part of Captain Jack's charm."
Depp also appreciated the mischievous nature and never-say-die attitude of his character. "In Jack, I saw a guy who was able to run between the raindrops. He can walk across the DMZ, entertain a troop and then sashay back to the other side and tell the enemy another story. He tries to stay on everyone's good side because he's wise enough to know he might need them in the future.
"No matter how bad things got, there was always this sort of bizarre optimism about him," continues the actor. "I also thought there was something beautiful and poignant about the idea of his objective. All he wants is to get his ship back, which represents nothing more than pure freedom to him. Of course he'll thieve and do whatever it takes, especially when the opportunity arises, but his main focus is just to get the Black Pearl back at whatever cost."
"Jack's one mission is to get back his ship," echoes Verbinski. "Again, it's about the simplicity of the character: his great love and his great freedom are his ship. He's not
the villain and he's not the love interest, although he does think he's got a chance with Elizabeth. Jack Sparrow is a bit of an oddball. Johnny's character is not unlike Lee Marvin's in 'Cat Ballou. He really just floats through the story affecting all around him while pursuing his goal."
Depp, who developed his ideas for the character of Jack while reading the script in his sauna, had strong ideas about Jack's attitude and appearance. His inspirations for the character were diverse: Depp says he modelled a large part of the character after legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, added a bit of the cartoon character Pepe Le Pew and tossed in some modern day Rastafarian. "Pirates were the rock stars of their day," says the actor.
"We needed an equally accomplished actor to play Johnny's adversary," explains Bruckheimer. "Geoffrey Rush is enormously talented and is known for playing a vast array of characters. We were lucky that he had a break in his schedule and wanted to be part of this project. Geoffrey's Barbossa is the quintessential villain; it's a treat to watch him become the character."
In an effort to find out what makes the wicked Barbossa tick, Rush created a rich backstory for the character as he prepared for the role. "He achieved the position of captain by being a mutinous first mate, and taking over the Black Pearl and claiming it as his own," he says. " I thought, this guy has got to be a crack swordsman, and a very nasty, dirty fighter. He didn't go to finishing school with an epee; he probably had a sword on his belt from the time he was about 13, and he just knew how to hack off heads. "I think Barbossa is actually quite smart," Rush continues. "That's probably why he's survived, because he used pre-emptive logic to map out his plans and deceive people. He pretends to be a gentleman of the sea, but he is a dirty old cunning rogue."
Rush speculates that Barbossa may have, at one time early in his life, had "very earnest desires to be a man of the sea. But he realised pretty quickly that you could actually get a lot more if you broke the rules, lied to people, killed a few people and took over. Maybe that's the innate fantasy people have about being a pirate."
Rush and Johnny Depp had similar styles in their approach to the material, and both actors took full advantage of the screenwriters' availability on set. The two actors, unrecognisable to passers-by in their pirate garb, spent most of their time between camera set-ups outside the stage door, hashing through scenes with Elliott and Rossio.
Bruckheimer cast Orlando Bloom in the role of handsome blacksmith Will Turner after meeting him on his film Black Hawk Down. "When we first cast him in 'Black Hawk Down,' I knew his time would come," says Bruckheimer. "I just didn't know how lucky we'd be to grab him before all the frenzy started with the two 'Lord of the Rings' films. I actually talked to him about this role while we were on 'Black Hawk' and he thought it sounded like a wonderful character."
Bloom saw the film as a way to further open the door to audiences that are still just getting to know him as an actor. Like Depp, the young actor also saw the role of Turner as a way to fulfil a childhood fantasy. "It's so exciting to work on a pirate movie. It's every boy's dream," he raves. "To actually be living the dream out on the open seas has been great fun. Although Bloom sees young Will as quite strait-laced at first, "he really does develop. He's very earnest, very true blue-then, without warning, he finds himself thrown into the middle of an exciting yet dangerous adventure. This is a coming of age story for Will."
The casting of Depp and Bloom in the roles of Jack and Will, respectively, helped emphasise the interesting dynamic that develops between the characters. "Jack and Will are definitely an odd couple," Jerry Bruckheimer says. "But Will inadvertently learns a lot from spending time with a pirate. Despite Will's best efforts to adhere to the social class structure, he realises that some rules are meant to be broken."
Orlando Bloom agrees. "Will has grown up without a father figure, so he has to look to the role models around him, and in Port Royal, those are naval officers. When Will and Jack are thrown together, Jack opens Will's eyes to what it means to be a man. He teaches him that he can't just blindly follow nonsensical rules; a man has to make his own decisions, right or wrong, and go after what he wants in life."

HISTORY AND PIRATE SCHOOL
Despite the fact that "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is a tale of fantasy, the filmmakers were no less resolute in their quest to learn as much as they could about real pirates. To that end the studio hired respected historian Peter Twist.
Twist is particularly interested in and knowledgeable about the years 1500 to 1900. He offered direction and advice, educating every department in production with general historical information: from customs of the day, to details regarding the style of dress and simple aspects of everyday life, to nautical minutiae and military history.
"A pirate is anybody who commits a crime on the high seas, so it's a very broad term," notes Twist. "Theft, destruction of property, anything like that done on open
water qualifies as piracy." Although the pirate characters aren't based on any real pirates, the movie is "a compilation of a lot of the things that were done by real pirates, and pirate codes, and so it is fact based," he stresses.
"Piracy has been around since man first put to sea," asserts Twist. "Julius Caesar was captured by pirates, the histories of all ancient cultures refer to pirates, the Egyptians and so on. They've always existed.
"The original pirates operated as individuals, they were haphazard and undisciplined," he says. "Over time piracy became more sophisticated. For example, in a war a government would grant 'letters of mark' to people who would then go and attack the enemy's shipping. The sailors and the government would basically split the money, and this was quite legal." A great many ship owners and sailors found this a profitable way to make a living... so profitable that they would continue the practice after the war ended and it was no longer legal. "That's piracy," says Twist.
The islands in the Caribbean were particularly valuable, he explains. "Aside from the gold and silver, the crops and the goods produced there were highly valued and well worth stealing. So it was a natural place for pirates to operate."
Twist says that the legendary pirate booty of buried treasure is simply a myth. "Buried treasure was something that virtually never happened. History tells us that typical pirates, after taking a prize, would divide the money and then head into a relatively pirate-friendly port for a drinking and womanising binge that would make the Romans blush, so there was nothing left to bury."
The most famous pirates had "rather short and violent careers," according to Twist, "but they did amass huge amounts of money. It was the allure of the fast buck that made people turn to piracy."
Despite the live-fast, die-young reputation of pirates, Verbinski sees some moral ambiguity in their trade. "It's illustrated when you look at the core of what piracy is," says Verbinski. "Whose rules does society live by? Who are the people who created those rules? Are they simply rules created to keep the masses in their place and the ruling class in theirs? And ultimately for the pirate, what has he got to lose?"
The filmmakers made no secret about taking liberties with the time period in which their story takes place. "It's a fantasy, so we weren't married to any specific period," explains Bruckheimer, "but we did want to be true to the overall feel of the era. We paid particular attention to the years between 1720 and 1750 in an effort to find an approximation."
"I think it takes place roughly at the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy, when the Morgans lived," Verbinski asserts. "Maybe the late 1720s. Barbossa is one of the last dregs of piracy that needs to be removed and consequently he's the most difficult to get rid of. So we come into a world where the myth of pirates is way ahead of the actual characters, which was fun to play with."
To maximise authenticity in the film, all of the actors playing pirates and some playing British naval officers spent weeks training with stunt co-ordinator George Marshall Ruge and his sword masters, Robert Anderson and Mark Ivie. Ruge originally met Anderson and Anderson's protege, Ivie, while working on "The Mask of Zorro."
Any pirate worth his salt has the scars, and oft times a missing body part or two, to prove his prowess with a sword. For the actors portraying pirates, the sessions with the sword masters were crucial, something akin to "Pirate School 10l."
Having starred in "Don Juan DeMarco" several years earlier, Johnny Depp had already received some training in the art of fencing and as luck would have it, Orlando Bloom had already spent time with both Ruge and Anderson on "Lord of the Rings."
During Anderson's brief time with the actors, Ruge made certain he went over the fundamentals and imparted as much of his technical skill as possible. Learning to be a pirate was not only about imitating the swagger and demeanour of a brigand, it was a serious study in brandishing a boarding cutlass or rapier. "Pirates films are my favourite," says Anderson. "But modern fencing, like the competitions you see in the Olympic Games, is highly technical and very precise in its actions, unlike screen fighting which is choreographed in such a way that the combatants make the action as large as they can for the camera. But whether it's ancient or modern swordplay, you start by learning to hold the sword properly and to manipulate it for attack and defence. And even though we use aluminium replicas, I'm religious about safety because working with any sword is dangerous.
"Swordplay is a conversation," he explains. "The opponents talk to each other with their blades. The style of fighting varies with each character. If I can make the sword work talk about what's happening in the script in the same way the dialogue conveys the story, then I feel I've succeeded."