Announced last month, the newest Pirates of the Caribbean film is to be released summer of 2011, to a crowd of screaming fangirls. Reportedly following the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow and his search for the Fountain of Youth, the movie is to be based upon the famous fantasy pirates novel of the 80's On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. The book featured among many things the famous pirate Blackbeard and ,of course, the Fountain of Youth. The explanation for this is simply that the authors wanted to write a story about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth, and the book just happened to have a similar story.

The movie ,however, is not going to feature a majority of the characters from the original trilogy. Overall, the idea stinks of a corporate money grab. The Pirates films slowly declined in quality throughout their original run, and the decision to make a sequel not even related to the previous films seems like a dumb move. The idea to base the fourth film off a book seems even more like the creators are short for ideas. The original films atleast had stories that were original, if not based off famous pirate mythology. Pirates, especially in its latter installments, had difficulty pulling off even these stories. The third pirates film was so bogged down in subplots and characters that it nearly ruined the movie. Pirates is the one movie series that I can say works with a simpler story. The first film was great because its story was fairly straightfoward, but the actors and characters pulled it foward, not the other way around. So perhaps covering a template would result in a more comprehensible and entertaining story. '

The only redeeming quality about this new film is that Johnny Depp, arguably the best part of all the films, is on board for the new film, but even this might not happen. Recently, Disney chairman Dick Cook resigned his position after 38 years of working it. This came as a surprise and shock to Depp, who claims that it was Cook that helped both him and the Pirates films become what they are today. Whether Depp's hesitance to take part in the film will affect it in the long term is to be seen. However, it is doubtful that Disney would make the film if he were to step down.

Overall, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides seems like a trainwreck waiting to happen, yet who knows. It might be the fun and independant Pirates film that we wanted ever since At World's End was released two years ago. Time will only tell.