After helping Disney to earn $2.6 billion with the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, the House of Mouse is locking down Johnny Depp with a three picture deal. (link) Depp has proven over the past 5-10 years that he really is a top tier talent with the ability to open even the most eclectic of movies. It is just unfortunate that this deal includes Depp reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth Pirates movie.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But similar to the Matrix trilogy, each subsequent movie has gotten worse. Now the Pirates sequels are no where near as bad as the Matrix sequels, but you get my point. Hopefully the upcoming fourth Capt. Jack Sparrow movie will benefit from a new and unconnected storyline. Also as part of the deal, Depp has agreed to star in the Jerry Bruckheimer produced remake of The Lone Ranger as the masked hero’s sidekick, Tonto.
And rounding out the three movie deal will be Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Depp will star as the Mad Hatter, a role he was born to play. The movie, scheduled to be released in 2010, “will be shot using 3-D and performance capture technology similar to that used for Beowulf.” (link) It sounds like a very cool project, and I cannot wait to see Burton’s bizarre take on this children’s classic. Alice in Wonderland will mark the seventh time Depp has starred in a Tim Burton directed feature film (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
