Margot Robbie’s female-led “Pirates of the Caribbean” spinoff might not be dead after all. The Oscar nominee claimed last month that Disney did not want to make her female-led “Pirates” movie, which has been in development for several years, but franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Collider that’s not entirely the case. Bruckheimer said that while another “Pirates” script is moving ahead over Robbie’s project, that doesn’t mean the female-centric spinoff is no longer a possibility.
“I think that that script will come forward at a certain point,” Bruckheimer said. “We developed two different stories for ‘Pirates’ and the other one’s going forward first, so that’s what we’re working on, to try to get that one made.”
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Variety reported in summer 2020 that Disney was in early development on Robbie’s “Pirates” movie as well as a second reboot written by franchise veteran Ted Elliott and “Chernobyl” creator Craig Mazin. Bruckheimer, who produced all five “Pirates” movies starring Johnny Depp, was always attached to both projects. It was confirmed in June 2020 that Robbie would be the star of a new “Pirates of Caribbean” movie at Disney written by her “Birds of Prey” screenwriter Christina Hodson.
Bruckheimer told The Sunday Times in May that both projects were still in development at the time, adding, “Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two ‘Pirates’ scripts — one with her, one without. [Will Johnny Depp be back?] Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided.”
Robbie was Vanity Fair’s cover star last month and told the publication, “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led — not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story — which we thought would’ve been really cool. But I guess they don’t want to do it.”
According to Bruckheimer, Robbie’s “Pirates” movie isn’t dead but also isn’t being prioritized at the moment. The previous “Pirates” movies, all starring Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, grossed $1.5 billion domestically and $3.07 billion internationally. The domestic total for 2017’s “Dead Men Tell No Tales” hit $172 million, while foreign markets delivered $622 million. All five “Pirates” films have grossed more than $650 million worldwide, with “Dead Man’s Chest” and “On Stranger Tides” both topping the $1 billion mark.
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