For some franchises, the math is just simple. While critics have wondered for years when public enthusiasm for the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘ franchise would grind to a halt, the movies are still a major draw around the globe. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” may have gotten the worst reviews of the franchise to date, but it still doubled its profit in worldwide grosses, earning $794 million against an estimated budget and P&A of $380 million. If I handed you a magic box that spits out two dollars every time you put in one, wouldn’t you feed that thing dollar bills until your hands were cramped and bleeding?
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So it’s not exactly a surprise to hear that Disney is still hard at work on its ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ reboot, even with a few setbacks. Despite some skepticism about the project after “Deadpool” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick jumped overboard back in February, The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that the franchise had added new architects, tapping ‘Pirates’ creator Ted Elliott and “Chernobyl” showrunner Craig Mazin to right the ship.
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When it comes to late-’90s blockbuster filmmaking. Elliott is your guy. With story credits on films like Roland Emmerich‘s “Godzilla,” Joe Dante‘s “Small Soldiers,” and “The Mask of Zorro,” Elliott proved himself as one of the go-to guys in Hollywood for films of a specific budget and a broad target audience. As the creator of the original ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie characters, Eliott is also well-equipped to help establish the tone and direction of the franchise going forward. While his last credited script (“The Lone Ranger“) may have bombed with audiences and critics alike, Disney certainly knows what they are getting with Elliott in the writers’ room.
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Despite being best-known these days for HBO’s “Chernobyl,” Mazin is also no stranger to the demands of franchise filmmaking. His body of work includes two ‘Scary Movie‘ sequels, two ‘Hangover‘ sequels, and the sequel-slash-spinoff that is “The Huntsman: Winter’s War.” Mazin is also one of several credited screenwriters on the new “Charlie’s Angels” movie, all of which suggests that “Chernobyl”—not ‘Pirates’—is the aberration in his body of work. It’ll be interesting to see if Mazin’s newfound reputation as a series architect affords him a bit more leeway with his latest franchise reboot; by blockbuster standards, even a little edginess would go a long way towards making this ‘Pirates’ stand out.