Earlier this week, the LA Times (and afterwards, several blogs including ours) reported that filmmakers on “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” were “scrambling to meet” the budget guidelines imposed by Disney who were looking to bring the film — still budgeted over $200 million — in cheaper than its predecessor “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End.”
However, writer Terry Rossio has taken to the Wordplay forums (a subsection of Wordplay, a resource for screenwriters run by Rossio and Ted Elliot) to call out the LA Times for what he feels was taking a few very loose facts and spinning them into a story with an angle (welcome to the Internet).
Calling the story a “source of much amusement around the production offices,” Rossio says the LA Times writer (actually two are credited, Claudia Eller and Dawn C. Chmielewski) took comments from interviews that revealed the studio was trying to bring in the “the best movie possible at a reasonable price” and spun it into the story that more or less claimed the film’s budget was forcing Jerry Bruckheimer and co. to shorten or excise planned action sequences.
Rossio asserts that Disney is doing what every other studio does at the start of a big budget movie saying, “Are there budget meetings on P4 to look for ways to get the most for the money? Of course. Same as on every film. It’s a complete non-story.” He goes on to say that there isn’t even a budget set yet for the film (Really? Doesn’t it starting shooting in just over a month?) and that a number of factors — “deadlines, hurricanes, tank issues, multiple star salaries, and myriad other details” — have all played a part in determining just how much cash will be thrown at the film and that comparing numbers for this film and the previous installment side by side doesn’t make much sense.
Rossio even goes on to say that “the decision has still not been made to shoot in 3D.” It was previously rumored that two-thirds of the film (the dramatic, non action stuff) would be shot using 3D cameras and one-third of the film (the action stuff) would be in 2D and converted later. We guess Rob Marshall and his team are still determining their approach.
At the end of the day, Rossio believes the final budget will come in close to what “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” cost. About $225 million. Yes, that is smaller than the $300 million spent on “Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End,” but it’s still more than serviceable to get a rousing pirate adventure in the can. And we agree with Bruckheimer when he says that “the audience will never miss it.” Something else people should note: the first installment of the franchise was budgeted at a comparably paltry $140 million. Anyway, see for yourself if the film is constrained by its budget when it opens on May 20, 2011.
Terry Rossio’s complete post removed at the request of Wordplay webmaster Ann Garretson.
–Written by Kevin Jagernauth