Rumours of a fourth Pirates movie have been circulating for some time now but the big question is... do we really need another movie?
With Johnny Depp all signed up to return to the role as Captain Jack Sparrow and Penelope Cruz supposedly in talks to star it seems that the movie is all steam ahead.
No one can deny that Curse of the Black Pearl breathed new life into the pirate movie genre which was, let's face is dead in the water - did you see Cutthroat Island it was awful?
Anyway Johnny and co silenced the doubters when Curse of the Black Pearl hit the big screen, finally we had a pirate movie that was a success.
But should the franchise have stopped there? Jack was free and had the Pearl, Will and Elizabeth were all set to be together and Barbossa was dead all ends tied up lovely!
But, as with so many movies today, a sequel went into production and we got Dead Man's Chest and At World's End As A Result.
Now while Pirates of the Caribbean has been a huge box office success, Dead Man's Chest broke through the $1 billion barrier they were a little disappointing.
Yes I enjoyed as much as the next person in the cinema but they weren't a patch on the original, and multiple Jacks in the third saw the movie descend into farce.
There's no doubting that the character of Jack Sparrow is one of the biggest movie icons to ever grace the big screen, not to mention it re-lighting the fire under Depp's career, and it was his performance that really held the final two movies together.
So what are the reasons for a fourth movie? Money? Or is it the chance to put the franchise back on track and produce a movie that's just as good as the original?
I don't know why we are so surprised that a fourth movie is in the pipeline as At World's End perfectly poised to a sequel, and yes it looks set to include the Fountain of Youth.
Tentatively titled Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides it's Rob Marshall, who brought us Nine and Chicago, in the director's chair.
And while I would love to see Captain Jack on the big screen I really wouldn't want to see the character and the franchise sold out to make a few extra bucks.
The movie was rumoured to begin filming at some point this year and is expected to hit cinema screens in 2011. Watch this space!
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean