Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate’s life for the New Yorker!

If you ask me, the best part of going to see TCONTLTWATW, was that they ran the new teaser for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Believe it or not, sequel Dead Man’s Chest is due out this summer. I was a huge fan of the first Pirates, and I can’t believe it’s been three years since it came out, good lord! Thankfully Johnny Depp has agree to return as Jack Sparrow along with familiar faces Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly, and goofy sidekicks Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook (they play the two weird looking pirates). Bill Nighy will play this film’s villain Davy Jones, a crazy, creepy looking pirate, who’s part octopus, part lobster, and part human, (his beard of squirming tentacles is terrifyingly awesome). Once again, the entire film is set in the Caribbean, and there’s something that I find very appealing about a fantasy adventure whose backdrop is turquoise waters and white sandy beaches, as opposed to the snowy mountains and deep woods of Middle Earth or Narnia. Not that those locales don’t have their own charm, but the Caribbean certainly shakes things up a bit. I’m not sure what it was about the first Pirates that made it stand out for me from so many other big action adventure films, but it really hit on something. I think Johnny Depp at the helm of a movie like this is part of what makes it work so well; he just throws himself into the role whole heartedly and doesn’t care how ridiculous he might seem. While Geoffrey Rush was terrific in the first one, I have a feeling Bill Nighy will more than cut the mustard as the new pirate.

I recently read that director Gore Verbinski shot scenes for the third film, while shooting Dead Man’s Chest, so already there is a trilogy in site. While I can’t say I hold out hope for all three being solid, the second one definitely looks promising so far.