Well kind of. It’s less than a month since Johnny Depp announced the title to Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and even then Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was being compared to the book of the same name – a possible plot source perhaps?
At the time it was largely considered speculation, but now the author of “On Stranger Tides” has been able to reveal that his book will indeed provide the basis for the fourth film in the popular Pirates of the Caribbean series.
Tim Powers reveals to the LA Times that during Disney’s D23 Expo, his email inbox was bombarded with messages from friends and fans due to the film’s title, which seemed to have been ripped directly from his work. Not only that, but his book tells the story of a group of pirates on a quest for the Fountain of Youth – the same Fountain that Captain Jack announced he was going to find at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End:
“I was still — as far as I understood — not free to talk about it,” the author told me Monday. “Then about a week ago my agent wrote and said, ‘You’re now able to say that in fact Disney did option the book.’ That happened a while ago, it’ll be three years in April.”
On Stranger Tides was originally published as far back as 1987, during (as the LA Times Blog point out) the Reagan administration. And according the source, Powers is still a little shocked that after all these year’s his work will be appearing on the big screen as the latest edition in the Pirates of the Caribbean series:
“Yes, I’m thrilled,” Power said, “I think it’s great.”
And there you have it fans. I would say that if you want to know what will happen, you should pick up the book, but of course the chances are that by the time Disney present us with Pirates 4 very little will remain of the source material. In fact, Powers seems to share the exact same sentiment:
“My main character doesn’t overlap with Jack Sparrow at all [in personality or circumstance]; they’re totally different characters. I suppose they might overlap the Geoffrey Rush character Barbossa and Blackbeard. The only thing I feel certain they will hold on to is the Fountain of Youth since they telegraphed that at the end of the last movie.”
Whatever material is taken from the book, it’s fairly certain that when all is said and done they’ll both stand apart as seperate stories in all but name and as such, I think I might have to pick myself up a copy off of Amazon once I’m done here!