PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski and the first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer, the film is based on Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney theme parks. The story follows pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) as they rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) from the cursed crew of the Black Pearl, captained by Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who become undead skeletons at night. It was also significant in being the first film released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner to be rated PG-13 by the MPAA. Johnny Depp won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The Curse of the Black Pearl was also nominated for four other Academy Awards. (More from Wikipedia)
Stiv Bators, the front man for one of the best punk rock bands the Dead Boys, had a tempestuous relationship with Bomp! Records’ Greg Shaw. He was trying to reinvent himself as a pop singer and released one excellent album in 1980 called Disconnected and a lot of other singles.
In about 1985, Stiv Bators was recording a new version of a Moody Blues “B” side, “The Story in Your Eyes”; and the flip side was going to be a cover of the Richard Berry anthem “Have Love, Will Travel”. Anyway, for “Have Love, Will Travel”, Greg Shaw was hoping to bring in one of the stable of young rock bands that he had signed – but no, Stiv Bators had to have the Little Kings; Shaw described them as “an adequate but rootless Hollywood glam [rock]-damaged band with tattoos – drinking buddies of his I guess”. One of their guitar players, Gore Verbinski was in several other bands in that period and started making rock videos after a while. His debut Hollywood film was Mouse Hunt in 1997; he also directed the 2003 mega-hit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl as well as the first two Pirates of the Caribbean Series sequels.
(September 2012)
