Jerry Bruckheimer Talks Pirates 4 for 2012; No Clooney Lone Ranger

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 5, 2008

Our compadre Ed Douglas over at Coming Soon got a chance this week to sit down and throw questions in the direction of super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer about some of his upcoming projects over at Disney. Bruckheimer was currently on the set of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the first film in what Disney hopes to be a major new franchise. But the topics of the day were two other potentially big Disney franchises, one new and one old.

First up was a quick update on Pirates of the Caribbean 4, which was announced in September at a Disney publicity event in Los Angeles. On Pirates 4, Bruckheimer said that they are shooting for a 2012 release date for the fourth film and he left open the possibility of shooting some scenes in IMAX. When asked if they would go the way of The Dark Knight with some big IMAX sequences, Bruckheimer had this to say: “I’d love to do it, so let’s just see if we can work it through the production schedule with everything else.”

Up next, Bruckheimer was cornered about the rumors that have been floating around about George Clooney possibly putting on the mask of The Lone Ranger. Johnny Depp has already been confirmed for the role of Tonto, but the film has not yet locked down either a star for the title role or a director. And according to Bruckheimer, not only is the Clooney rumor untrue, but that the director must come first:

We haven’t decided who is going to play the Lone Ranger yet. Get a director first and then figure it out.

Simple and straightforward, just like Jerry Bruckheimer likes to play it. At this point it is nice to see continued progress on Pirates 4. If it goes as expected, it will focus on Captain Jack Sparrow and his quest for the Fountain of Youth, which could be quite a lot of fun. As well, The Lone Ranger is a very interesting project, no matter who ends up in the mask. We will continue to bring you updates as they are made available.

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