'Kon-Tiki' directors will likely helm 'Pirates of the Caribbean 5'

In a summer chock full of sequels, threequels, and all the other iterations of successful franchises refusing to leave money on the table, we almost forgot about the looming fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean. Wednesday, news broke that the Oscar-nominated directing pair Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg were in final negotiations to helm Pirates of the Caribbean 5,which is expected to begin shooting in January for a July 10, 2015 release.

Rønning and Sandberg are best known for directing the epic Kon-Tiki, a fictionalized take on Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s 101-day expedition across the Pacific Ocean on a wooden raft. They nabbed a Best Foreign Language Oscar nomination for that effort, which is currently playing in limited release in the U.S.

The Pirates franchise has had an interesting run with directors, relying on Gore Verbinski for the first three, and then Rob Marshall (Chicago) for the fourth. Selecting Rønning and Sandberg to take over at least one film in this otherwise well-oiled machine may signal a willingness to take the franchise in a different direction creatively. Disney even switched up writers on the project and tasked Catch Me If You Can scribe Jeff Nathanson to pen a rewrite.

Johnny Depp will of course be back to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, but not much else is known about the project at this point. Are you all interested to see what Rønning and Sandberg might bring to Pirates of the Caribbean 5?

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