About That PIRATES 4 Title…

When the title for the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean was announced at D23 Expo, many speculated that ON STRANGER TIDES is based  the  book by author Tim Powers, that features the legendary Blackbeard, here’s the official synopsis of the book…

“Puppeteer John Chandagnac, who was sailing to Jamaica to get revenge on the uncle who had stolen his father’s inheritance, has no choice but to join the buccaneers who have taken him prisoner–and soon, known now as the pirate Jack Shandy, he finds himself learning to survive in a treacherous new world of cutlass-fights, sea-battles, and voodoo magic on sun-blinded tropical islands. The legendary Blackbeard is assembling a ruthless navy of pirates living and undead to voyage to the fabled Fountain of Youth, and Jack Shandy must use magic, swordsmanship, and even his puppeteer skills to free himself and the girl he has fallen in love with from Blackbeard’s deadly supernatural domination.”

LA TIMES had a chat with Tim Powers and found out that Disney did secretly option the book a while ago but Powers made it clear that his book is different from Jack Sparrow’s story, although he can see how the two might collide. He’s actually looking forward to how it will play out on the big screen

“I was still — as far as I understood — not free to talk about it,”
“Then about a week ago my agent wrote and said, ‘You’re now able to say that in fact Disney did option the book.’ That happened a while ago, it’ll be three years in April.”
“Yes, I’m thrilled,”
“I think it’s great.”
“I’ve watched all the movies several times, of course, and I think the clear thing they would use is the trip to the Fountain of Youth,”
“My main character doesn’t overlap with Jack Sparrow at all [in personality or circumstance]; they’re totally different characters. I suppose they might overlap the Geoffrey Rush character Barbossa and Blackbeard. The only thing I feel certain they will hold on to is the Fountain of Youth since they telegraphed that at the end of the last movie.”

The movie’s co-screenwriter Terry Rossio told Empire that PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES will be inspired by Tim Powers‘ book, so it’s not necessary going to be a complete adaptation of the book.

“We wanted to do a story about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth, and Tim Powers wrote a book about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth… it just turns out that to do that story you would need that book. It’s a brilliant and Tim Powers is an amazing writer – and it’s a great title. It allows us to draw material from that universe and his expertise.”
“I don’t know if its proper to say it’s based on it but there are enough common elements to think that the book had to be optioned to us to reasonably proceed along that story line.”

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES will open in summer 2011,