What a difference a few days make! Last week Johnny Depp ponced out on stage at D23, the Disney convention in Anaheim, in full Jack Sparrow drag to announce the title of the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Then Dick Cook, the head of Disney Studios suddenly – and I mean fucking suddenly – stepped down from his position Friday night. Now Johnny is less sure about his own piratical future.
See, it seems that Dick Cook was the reason Johnny was so big on the Pirates films in the first place. Depp tells the LA Times: “He said, ‘We’re thinking about doing this ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie,'” Depp recalled. “I said I was in. This was before there was a script or anything.
“He’s instantly trustworthy. And you generally don’t meet people at the studios you trust… He’s a rare beast.”
Apparently Cook called Depp personally a few hours before making the announcement. Depp says that the departure of the big guy has left him very shaken.
“There’s a fissure, a crack in my enthusiasm at the moment,” Depp said. “It was all born in [Cook’s] office.”
And while Depp is attached to the film, his deal allows him to back out depending on the script. Whoever takes over Cook’s spot had best get on the phone with Captain Jack ASAP and smooth this shit out or Pirates 4 is in for some rough seas.