It’s a pirate’s life for me!

Pirates of the Caribbean 3
RELEASE DATE: In Bahrain May 23 and worldwide on May 25
DIRECTOR: Gore Verbinski
WRITERS: Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio
STUDIO: Walt Disney Pictures
STARRING: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy, and Chow Yun-Fa
RATING: PG13
GENRE: Action/ adventure
RUNNING TIME: 165 mins
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: disney.com

CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) return for a third slice of swashbuckling action in Pirates of the   Caribbean: At World’s End in Bahrain – two days before it officially opens in cinemas across the world.
The movie was shot back-to-back with the second entry into the series, Dead Man’s Chest and this last decisive battle is sure to thrill audiences at Seef, Saar and Al Jazeera Cinemas from next Wednesday.
In the conclusion to the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, the heroes must face a powerful alliance formed by Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and Admiral James Norrington (Jack Davenport).
With the help of an unlikely friend, the trio fight to protect the freedom of all pirates around the world.
A titanic showdown at the other side of the world also brings a new and even more deadly enemy.
In the follow-up we find our heroes, allied with an unlikely friend – Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), in a desperate quest to free Captain Jack from his mind-bending trap in Davy Jones’ locker – while the terrifying ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman, under the control of the East India Trading Company, wreaks havoc across the Seven Seas.
Navigating through treachery, betrayal and wild waters, they must forge their way to exotic Singapore and confront the cunning Chinese Pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat).
Now headed beyond the very ends of the earth, each must ultimately choose a side in a final, titanic battle – as not only their lives and fortunes, but the entire future of the freedom-loving Pirate way, hangs in the balance.
Pirates of the Caribbean was envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-through wax museum at Disneyland in America that would have featured depictions of real pirates from history in static scenes.
Instead, Disney Imagineers utilised the technological breakthroughs achieved in the company’s four pavilions at the 1964-65 World’s Fair to transform the attraction into a rollicking boat ride through vivid environments filled with fictional Audio-Animatronic pirates sacking a Caribbean seaport.
Its theme song, Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me), sets a light-hearted tone for what were seen as violent criminals historically.
The last Disney theme park attraction designed with input from Walt Disney, it opened in its original form in New Orleans Square at Disneyland on March 18, 1967. Since then, it has been replicated in different forms at three subsequent Disney theme parks – Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort (December 15, 1973), Tokyo Disneyland (April 15, 1983) and Disneyland Paris (April 12, 1992).
When rumours about a possible film inspired by the attraction first surfaced in 2002, many saw the move as a simple ploy by Disney to promote one of its theme park rides. Additionally, many were concerned that pirate films such as Cutthroat Island and films based on Disney attractions such as The Country Bears had not done well at the box office.
Nevertheless, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl opened on July 9, 2003, and eventually grossed $653 million worldwide, becoming one of the top 25 global box office earners of all time.
In 2006, to promote the release of the second film, and to bring the attraction up-to-date, audio-animatronic likenesses of Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa were added to the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom versions, along with new special effects, though the basic ride remains the same.
The success of the first film led to the production of two additional films with the same core cast.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the final film of the trilogy, is likely to be the most successful.
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By Sahar Mulla
sahar.mulla@gulfweekly.com