20 facts you might not know about 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'

Some Disney executives had the idea of, “Hey, let’s turn that Pirates of the Caribbean ride into a movie” in the early 2000s. The first person to take a crack at the screenplay was Jay Wolpert. Wolpert was approaching 60 when he turned to screenwriting. He spent most of his career as a game show producer, including creating the game show Whew! that has become a cult favorite on the Buzzr channel. Speaking of game shows, Wolpert first found success as a contestant on that front, winning the Jeopardy! "Tournament of Champions" in 1969.

Wolpert would only end up with a "story by" credit on the film, but he had some of the aspects from the final Curse of the Black Pearl product in the movie. In his version, though, Will Turner was a prison guard, and he released Jack Sparrow to save Elizabeth Swann from a villainous character named Captain Blackheart.

When Disney was first developing a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, they weren’t sure just how much to invest in it. For a while, they debated whether or not to release it in theaters or to make it a direct-to-DVD movie. This also played a role in their concepts for casting at the time. They had Matthew McConaughey in mind for Jack Sparrow in a theatrical release, or Cary Elwes if they went the direct-to-DVD route. 

After Wolpert’s script, piracy expert Stuart Beattie wrote a new draft. Like Wolpert, he has a "story by" credit on the final film. However, super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer then signed on for the film. He disliked Beattie’s script, not wanting a “straight pirate movie.” The duo of Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, who have screenplay credit, were then brought in to turn the movie into the supernatural story it became.

As soon as the project got going, Gore Verbinski was brought in to direct. He was excited to tackle the film because pirate movies had been popular in the “Golden Age of Hollywood,” but had basically disappeared from the film landscape. Verbinski wanted to use modern technology to do a whole new take on the pirate film.

We mentioned McConaughey and Elwes were early names bandied about, but as production went on, other names were thrown into the mix. These names included Christopher Walken, Michael Keaton, and Jim Carrey. Hugh Jackman apparently was a favorite of some, but he wasn’t considered a big-enough name yet. (This was before X-Men hit big.) Ultimately, Johnny Depp would get the role.

Barbossa, the antagonist of the film, is played by Geoffrey Rush in the movie. He’s a fine actor, but he was not the first option. Robert De Niro had been offered the role, but he reportedly turned it down assuming the movie would flop, which had been the case for pirate movies for decades.

Jack Sparrow is the showy role, but Will Turner is the classic swashbuckling hero of the piece. Names such as Tobey Maguire, Jude Law, Christian Bale, and Heath Ledger were suggested, and Tom Hiddleston auditioned. Orlando Bloom would get the role, and he actually read the script because Rush had suggested it to him.

In the script, Jack Sparrow as a more straightforward character. Depp, though, didn’t really want to keep things normal. His idea was that pirates were the “rock stars” of the era, so he modeled his character after Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. He also went ahead and capped his teeth with gold. Disney executive Michael Eisner saw what Depp was doing and proclaimed, “He’s ruining the film!” But eventually, Depp earned the trust of the production, which would work out in the long run.

Depp did a bunch of business, but Rush was cast explicitly because he wouldn’t. Verbinski said he wanted Rush as Barbossa because he wouldn’t try and make the character “complex” and would be happy to just be a “simple” villain character.

We mentioned Eisner earlier, and he nearly axed Pirates of the Caribbean before it ever saw the light of day. The Country Bears, also based on a Disney theme park attraction, totally bombed, and that made Eisner nervous the same thing would happen to a Pirates movie. Undeterred, Verbinski had his concept artists keep at it, and this art convinced Eisner to let the film’s production continue.

While CGI rules the day in films, and there’s plenty of digital effects in Curse of the Black Pearl, there is also plenty of practical effect work in this movie. Dyes were used to create the rotten teeth and scurvy-affected skin of the pirates. Also, contact lenses were used for several character’s eyes, including Ragetti’s wooden eye.

To find a location to serve as Tortuga and Port Royal, the filming of Curse of the Black Pearl went down to the Caribbean. They settled on St. Vincent as the place to set up shop because there they found the quietest beach that was available to film.

Originally, the movie was just going to be called Pirates of the Caribbean. However, Disney added “Curse of the Black Pearl” as a subtitle in case they made sequels, and to try and entice potential filmgoers. This annoyed Verbinski, as in the film the Black Pearl is not cursed. The Aztec gold is the cursed object. Verbinski couldn’t fight the subtitle, but he did ask for the title to be obscured on the poster.

Disney, the company, had released PG-13 and even R-rated movies. They just did them under other banners, such as Touchstone. Curse of the Black Pearl became the first PG-13 movie to be released under the title of Walt Disney Pictures.

All those fears of another flop of a pirate movie? They proved unfounded. The film topped the domestic box office when it debuted, and it was huge overseas. In fact, Curse of the Black Pearl was the top movie internationally for seven-straight weeks, tying the record with Men in Black II. All in all, it made $654.3 million worldwide, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003.

The Academy Awards nominated Curse of the Black Pearl for Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. Oh, and Best Actor. Yes, Johnny Depp, he of all the tics and worrying decisions, was nominated for his turn as Jack Sparrow. He didn’t win, but he showed Eisner and company why he was worth having faith in.

Curse of the Black Pearl has yielded, to date, four sequels. Over these movies, the franchise has become one of the most lucrative ever. Two of the films made over $1 billion worldwide. Four of the five films were once in the top 50 in total box office, and two of the movies remain in the top 50. Currently, it’s one of the 15 highest-grossing franchise ever.

Originally, Disney intended to shoot a fifth and sixth movie in the franchise back-to-back. Instead, only one film, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was shot. That movie came out in 2017, and there has been talk of a sixth film ever since. However, while a director in Joachim Ronning has been attached for years, the movie hasn’t begun shooting. Additionally, Depp has said that he does not intend to return to playing Jack Sparrow. If we get more Pirates, don’t expect more Sparrow.

Are you familiar with Ron Gilbert’s Monkey Island series of video games? Some of the folks affiliated with the Pirates of the Caribbean series seem to be. Similarities between the video game franchise and the film franchise have been pointed out, including by Gilbert. There have also been rumors that Curse of the Black Pearl screenwriter Elliott once worked on a screenplay for a nixed adaptation of The Curse of Monkey Island. Of course, inspiration takes many forms. The fourth movie in the Pirates series, On Stranger Tides, is an adaptation of a book of the same name by Tim Powers. Gilbert has said that novel is what inspired his video game series in the first place.