'Pirates' Passes $500M Mark Worldwide

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The third installment of the ``Pirates of the Caribbean'' films passed the $500 million mark worldwide in 20 days, including a record opening in China for the film's distributor, The Walt Disney Co.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,'' starring Johnny Depp, opened on 17,500 screens internationally around the same time as its domestic debut and earned $506 million as of Wednesday, the studio said Wednesday.

The film also took in $1.3 million on its opening day in China on Tuesday, the studio said.

That's a record for the studio, which played the film at 506 locations across the country - its widest release in China ever.

Domestically, the film has taken in $253 million as of Sunday after three weeks in theaters.

The Chinese version of ``Pirates'' was slightly shorter than the original after censors insisted bits of the film be cut.

Disney excised some of the scenes featuring Chow Yun-Fat as Chinese pirate Captain Sao Feng after the Chinese objected due to ``cultural sensitivities,'' Disney said.

``They weren't quite ecstatic with how the Chinese pirate was portrayed,'' Anthony Marcoly, distribution chief at Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Distribution International, said. ``He's still prevalent throughout the movie, though.'

Source :The Associated Press

Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End

Cast: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley;
Director: Gore Verbinski
Ratings: ** and 1/2

There are spectacular scenes and then there are moments of utter mayhem in part three of the sea adventure titled "Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End".

Just as you begin to comprehend what just happened on the screen, a volley of events get thrown at you until you give up and start looking at your watch for the minutes to tick by.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End", is simply not half as interesting or gripping as the first of the three in the series. It's only saving grace is the feisty captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) whose antics tickles your senses and makes you laugh amidst all the confusion.

The film starts with Jack being imprisoned in Davy Jones locker and Captain Barbossa (Geoffery Rush) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) seeking the help of Singaporean pirate lord captain Sao Feng (Yun-Fat).

Feng, however, has his suspicions because he had just caught Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) trying to steal a precious map.

They all try to outdo each other with their tricks, but their aim remains the same - a search for Jack Sparrow. With him they can attend the gathering of the Nine Lords of the Brethern to determine the future of piracy in the Caribbean.

And hence, a good 30 minutes after the film had begun, enters Jack Sparrow. But he's not alone. Stranded in an island, Sparrow has a multiple number of clones for his company, each trying to show of what he can do.

One of the most brilliant scenes in the movie is that of a thousand crabs clambering under Sparrow's trusty vessel, the Black Pearl, and drawing it to the nearest body of water from the desert island where it was stranded.

The story moves on, almost mechanically, running through the plots and sub-plots, even turning the ship upside down and then back to finally solving all the mysteries. But the charm was long lost.

It has failed to live up to its pre-release hype. The film can be watched for Johnny Depp's antics, which is as good as ever.

Nighy Pumped To Reopen Davy Jones' Chest

Bill Nighy has plunged back into the menacing role of the cursed sea creature Davy Jones for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," but unlike his debut in the role for "Dead Man's Chest," the esteemed British actor didn't have to hold his breath.Nighy, whose acting was motion-captured for the role, didn't have the benefit of gauging his performance on set or even in dailies. However, he did have the benefit of seeing the completed version of the second film prior to the bulk of the production of "At World's End."

"What happened was that we didn't do all of three when we were supposed to," Nighy said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "We did one and a third movies back-to-back, and did the other two-thirds after a hiatus. So I had an opportunity to go back and tweak it, and by then, we were much emboldened by the success of part two -- Having seen that, to do the latter part of this movie, there was a spring in our step."

And of course, there were other residuals of the performance that inspired Nighy on his trip to "World's End." The effects crew won an Oscar for their work on Jones, among other things, and Nighy got a bit of awards praise himself."I had also been nominated for an award in a category called 'Sleazebag of the Year,' against Sir Ian McKellen," Nighy beamed.


"So I felt I was in pretty good shape.""At World's End," which opens Thursday at 8 p.m. in theaters nationwide, finds Jones and the crew of the Flying Dutchman under control of Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) and the East India Trading Company.A formidable force wreaking havoc across the seven seas, Jones and Beckett are threatening to bring to an end the pirate way of life -- until Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) rescue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in an effort to unite the pirate brotherhood across the world to take the evil duo on.

A Crazy Path
It wasn't long ago when the veteran of British film, television and stage was acting the traditional way.Appearing in production across the pond since the late 1970s, U.S. audiences started to take notice of Nighy's burning screen charisma in the late 1990s -- starting with his heartbreakingly funny turn as Ray Simms, the over-the-hill singer of a feuding yet reunited 70s hard rock band Strange Fruit in the comedy import "Still Crazy."


Since then, his notable gigs have included "Love Actually" (playing the outrageous funny rock and roll retread Billy Mack) and "The Constant Gardner," and over the past year he's appeared in "Notes on a Scandal" and "Hot Fuzz," and a voice gig in "Flushed Away."However, Nighy wasn't a complete stranger to films aided by special effects. He played a vampire opposite Kate Beckinsale in the "Underworld," and fans of the horror comedy cult classic "Shaun of the Dead" know Nighy for his small, but memorable turn as the title character's step-father-turned-zombie.But when Nighy opened the dead man's chest of Davy Jones, he discovered nothing more than what could be described as high-tech sleepwear.


"They put you in a pair of gray, computer pajamas with white bubbles all over them and a skull cap, show you these drawings of this fantastical creature, and then someone says 'action,'" Nighy said. "I remember the first couple weeks of 'Dead Man's Chest' were up there among the most daunting of my career. It was a big leap of faith."And of course, being the only actor on the set not dressed like a pirate can make one feel a little odd.

"They ran out of jokes on about the third day of shooting," Nighy quipped. "But they were very kind to me because it was hard to tackle. You walk on a big American film set, dressed like some lunatic.

It was very hard with anybody, but with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, standing around, it was harder. It's hard enough standing next to them on a good day, without being dressed as some clown."

Suspending Disbelief
Thankfully, Nighy wasn't completely without a net for his seven seas adventures. Not only did the vivid use of his imagination put the actor in the right element for the filmmakers to capture his movements, the proper projection of his voice helped shape the character."There was a time when I was young when certain film directors didn't like using actors with a theater background because they thought for some reason that the actors would be over-the-top or something when they came in front of camera," Nighy said.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. Most actors who have any kind of intelligence can tailor their performance to any kind of medium they are required to be in."However, Nighy admits, not being "seen," per se, allows you to push your performance to certain levels.

"In acting terms, I do think in this case that I got away with things -- because I'm playing a fabulous creature – that I wouldn't be allowed to get away with under normal circumstances. It was a level of performance that you normally wouldn't attempt, but in vocal and physical terms, having the theater background did feed into the equation this time.


"Plus, Nighy's work in "Dead Man's Chest" and "At World's End" is like theater because it's all him. The 57-year-old actor does his own stunts and sword fighting, and he's thrilled that director Gore Verbinksi and his fellow filmmakers totally stuck with his motions, when they could have unnoticeably inserted the movements of a stunt double."They were incredibly loyal to the performance that happened on the set.


There's no sound or movement it makes that wasn't inspired in real-time and real life by the sounds and motions that I made," Nighy said. "I knew that they were well intended, but I didn't know to what degree it was possible to stick with what I did, technically, because I don't know from anything when it comes to the computer side of things. But they did, and they did it so beautifully."Among the other visual effects in "At World's End" is a groundbreaking maelstrom scene, as Jones and Sparrow do battle with each other as the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman fight from being sucked into a monolithic whirlpool.


And despite his extensive involvement in the film, Nighy is excited to know that he can come out of the theater just as wowed by what he sees as the average audience member."You'd think that the opposite would be the case, and that your work on the film would spoil it for you," Nighy said. "But I just completely fall for it. I sit there, and I'm swallowed up in it. I also gasp. I do think that this is a step forward in movie technology. I didn't know what was possible. Particularly with this movie, you look at it and say, 'God, that is just magical.'"

Source : Wtov9.Com