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Disney Adventure August 2003

A Pirate's Life.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A TALKING SKULL. When Ted Elliott was about six years old, he rode the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland for the first time. As soon as he heard the skull warning guests: "Avast there, it be too late to alter course, mateys … and there be plundering pirates lurking in every cove, waiting to board," he put his hands over his eyes, watching through his fingers for the duration of the ride. He was scared but also enthralled by the lifelike buccaneers ransacking a village in search of buried treasure. From that day forward, Elliott was hooked on pirates.
Elliott grew up to be an award-winning filmmaker (Aladdin and Shrek), but he never lost that passion for pirates. "The theory that I developed when I was, like, six is this: Any movie with one good sword fight is a good movie."
A decade ago, after Elliott and fellow screenwriter Terry Rossio had finished Aladdin, the pitched to Disney "a big, swashbuckler adventure movie called Pirates of the Caribbean, with supernatural elements, and cursed pirates, and the whole megillah," says Elliott, calling from the Pirates set in the Caribbean. "They said no. Ten years later, we got a call from Jerry Bruckheimer's company asking if we'd like to write a big, swashbuckler adventure movie called Pirates of the Caribbean. And we said, 'Yeah, but only if there can be supernatural elements, and cursed pirates, and the whole megillah, because we've been thinking about it for ten years and we've got a few ideas.'"
So Elliott and Rossio set about penning a pirate tale. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl which opens July 9, follows the adventures of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith who seeks to rescue the girl of his dreams , Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). She's been kidnapped by captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and the crew of the Black Pearl. Barbossa and his band of pirates are under a curse and believe Elizabeth can reverse it. Will enlists the help of a rogue pirate named Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who agrees to help the lad for reasons of his own - to reclaim his ship, which Barbossa has stolen.
Fans of the ride will be happy to know that (as of press time) the talking skull appears in the movie, along with other nods to the attraction, like a few refrains of "Yo Ho, Yo Ho; A Pirate's Life For Me," the bombardment of a fort, and jail mates trying to entice a dog with keys in its mouth. And, of course, the requisite fights - sword and otherwise.
The actors trained several hours a day to learn the art of sword fighting. "You memorize the moves, and then you have freedom within them," says Bloom (Lord of the Rings), on the set in the Caribbean.
One of the primary fight scenes has Will and Jack sparring in the rafters of a blacksmith's shop, dueling with hammers and bellows. "I remember hanging about in the rafters, just swaying around there with my sword in hand," says Bloom. "There's a lot of just crazy stunt stuff."
Another sword fight was shot on The Walt Disney Studios backlot in Soundstage 2, which was transformed into Treasure Cave on Isla de Muerte - a labyrinth of lagoons, tunnels and caves encrusted with jewels and shiny doubloons. It's the perfect setting for the battle of the buccaneers: Jack takes on Barbossa while Will and Elizabeth fight three pirates. "Bear in mind, the cursed pirates cannot be killed. So it's an uphill battle for our heroes," Elliott says with a hearty laugh. For most of the movie, actors play the evil scoundrels, but during the climatic battle, they are "revealed by moonlight for what they truly are: neither alive nor dead," says Elliott. "They're skeletons, like decayed flesh, and will be digitally created, but what is going to blow people away is that they are individuals." Two standouts - Pintel and eye-popping (literally) Ragetti - became known on set at the evil Abbott and Costello. "They are genuinely hilarious and get a little more screen time than we first intended," adds Elliott.
The film was shot at several locations in California and, naturally, in the Caribbean (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). Master craftsmen constructed the huge ships on which the cast and crew sailed. "The first night the Black Pearl was brought to the port, we came around a bend and saw the pirate ship silhouetted against the sunset. It was absolutely amazing," says Elliott. "Everything in this movie is genuinely better than Terry and I imagined. And we have really good imaginations!" Sailing on a pirate ship can be rough for a landlubber, as Bloom testifies after a long day at see. "I just got off the ship and the room is still swaying," he says, eager to talk about his character. "Will is very earnest and dependable. He's a blacksmith by trade and a master swordsman. He's a man of honor, in a time when, really, there is no honor - the polar opposite of Jack Sparrow. Will would throw his cape over a puddle for a woman," Bloom says. "The character has a great arc; as he develops you can see that he learns the way of the pirate."
Meanwhile, Knightley, a British actress in her first starring role in an American film, plays a character who is anything but your typical damsel-in-distress. "Elizabeth is rebellious and wants to experience life. She's got a bit of bite to her. Playing a character that is so courageous is a lot of fun," says the actress, who displayed a bit of bravery herself by bodly walking the plank. "How often do you get the opportunity to walk the plank? I jumped into the sea in my costume, and it was fantastic!"
Jumping overboard proved easier for Knightley than working with Captain Barbossa's monkey. "The monkey is sitting on Geoffrey's shoulder during an extremely intense scene - a standoff between Elizabeth and Barbossa - and they're shooting a water pistol at the monkey to get its attention, as well as shooting water in Geoffrey's face because they're missing the monkey! I'd just like anybody to keep a straight face," she says.
And don't mention sword fights around Knightley. "I thought, 'Swashbuckling pirate adventure, I've got to get a sword!' But they haven't given me one. I fight with brooms and staffs, and you name it, but not a sword. It's a very sore point ) I'm told it will be remedied if there's a sequel."
Will sword fighting, skeletons, and walking the plank be too much for the biggest pirate fan - little kid? "It's intense," says Elliott, who adds that he and Rossio wrote it with the intention that "if parents feel their children are old enough to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, they'll be old enough to see this movie." Elliott remembers feeling " a mix of absolute exhilaration and a little bit of terror" the first time he visited the attraction. "Exuberant delight, I guess," he says. "And that's what we want: for everyone who sees this movie to experience the feeling they had the first time they went on the ride."