# Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-on-stranger-tides/510214 "2009-09-15T19:35:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-on-stranger-tides/510214/1 "2009-09-15T19:35:39Z")
The announced name of the proposed upcoming installment, featuring Johnny Depp, due for a 2011 release. Fun news for fans, and maybe some good news for Tim Powers fans as well? _On Stranger Tides_ is my favorite Tim Powers books, and I’ve often thought it would make a great pirate movie. If it’s not just a naming coincidence, they’ll have a little work to do to make the story fit in the POTC world, but not too much. Need new love interests, of course, since they’ve neatly excised Bloom and Knightley from future movies. Not sure where Jack Sparrow could fit into all of this. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-on-stranger-tides/510214/2 "2009-09-15T20:06:40Z")
[This writer](http://www.latinoreview.com/news/exclusive-more-information-on-pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-7982) claims to have asked Tim Powers’ agent about the movie’s title. He said “…I can tell you it is not a coincidence.” I could see Johnny Depp play the lead in a movie based on the book. Inserting Captain Jack into the story would require some changes. The book has zombie pirates–and there were almost-zombie pirates in the first movie. But if it means money to Tim Powers & more interest in his wonderful books (by the public & Hollywood moviemakers looking for stories), I’d be very glad. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-on-stranger-tides/510214/3 "2009-09-15T20:31:52Z")
I am ambivalent. The first movie was fantastic, but I despised the second two, when it tried to go all epic. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-on-stranger-tides/510214/4 "2009-09-16T00:54:53Z")
For some reason, this keeps reminding me of the Monkey Island series. Particularly since the creator has as much as said that his two big influences were “Pirates of the Caribbean(the ride)” and the book “On stranger tides” I’ve often told people that Monkey Island is pretty much the video game equivalent of “Pirates of the Caribbean”, but without Johnny Depp. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-on-stranger-tides/510214/5 "2009-09-16T09:01:21Z")
I suspect Disney realized their story idea was similar to Powers’ and acquired the rights to his novel to forestall any plagiarism claims. Given the revenues the film could generate, it’s a pretty cheap insurance policy. Then they probably thought that once they purchased it, they might as well get some value out of it. Hey, the title’s kind of cool, and testing shows that by adding Powers’ fan base to ours we can increase our audience by .01 percent! Of course that’s just as much guesswork as anything else that’s been said so far.