Although critics agreed that Dead Man's Chest was a "bloated" follow-up to the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, it ranks as Jerry Bruckheimer's biggest blockbuster to date. No doubt it was Johnny Depp's rib-tickling turn as Capt. Jack Sparrow that eased it pass $400m in just 45 days, breaking umpteen box office records (probably including the record for the most box office records ever).
Mapping The Course
Bruckheimer spitballs ideas for the sequel with director Gore Verbinski and writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio in Charting The Return, insisting "It's always about the characters". It's a rare glimpse into the early stages of the creative process although in the hour-long documentary According To Plan, Rossio and Elliot confess that they have no idea where to go after the first film.
Of course the scribes soon figure it out and it's not long before we're in the Bahamas for the 200 day shoot. Depp is thrilled to be back with the Pirates cast and crew, which he says is like being part of "a weird gypsy family". It's a very big family though, with endless convoys of trucks and people - not to mention a giant wheel thundering through the jungle with Depp clinging on for dear life! The audacious stunts present a major challenge, but in a separate reel of b-roll footage Orlando Bloom seems to rather enjoy being yo-yoed in a giant cage.
Keira Knightley is having a ball too as she wields a sword for the first time in Mastering The Blade. Bloom and Jack Davenport (who plays Norrington) are also shown in training for their big fight scenes. Bill Nighy gets a look-in in Meet Davy Jones, but the visual effects bods are the real heroes here. (Apparently Jones' slimy skin is just a blown-up image of a coffee-stained polystyrene cup!) Creating The Kraken showcases more digital effects, this time in bringing to life the giant squid that stalks Sparrow and co. across the seas.
Swash And Buckle
See Depp getting his goatee plaited among a cluster of featurettes on designing Captain Jack Sparrow. These are accessible via an interactive portrait and also reveal how much the actor's own input influenced the final gypsy chic look. The Disney ride on which the franchise is based also gets a makeover in Dead Men Tell New Tales. It reveals where Bruckheimer and co. took inspiration for scenes in the first movie and shows how, in turn, the ride 'imagineers' have cribbed moments from the film. Later the stars unveil Dead Man's Chest in Pirates On Main Street, which mainly involves hordes of teenage girls screaming "Johnny!"
Bruckheimer reflects on the whole Pirates experience while flicking through his personal snapshots in A Producer's Photo Diary while, on disc one, cameras capture the bits that didn't make the cut. Among the bloopers, Bloom gets upstaged by a parrot, then is asked by Depp to "do strange things" to his dog...
Writing partners Elliot and Rossio provide the only commentary for the film. It gives them a chance to acknowledge the critics' gripes and to explain their intention to "retroactively engineer a much larger story". They also chat about using humour to "undercut the bravado" of the lead characters and throw in a few nightmare tales about the set being blown apart by tropical storms.
Click around the menus on disc two and you'll also find Easter eggs that pay tribute to the working class heroes that keep the production ticking over. They include the caterers, the prop painters and "the coconut man" whose job it is to guard against falling coconuts - which is very useful if you're Keith Richards. In all, this two-disc edition boasts a veritable treasure trove of extras.
EXTRA FEATURES
