Johnny Depp Officially Says Goodbye To Jack Sparrow

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

Even though Pirates of the Caribbean fans know that Disney had fired fan-favorite actor Johnny Depp, the actor has come forward and revealed he won’t return to play Captain Jack Sparrow even if Disney changes their mind.

Depp’s life was turned upside down after his ex-wife Amber Heard published a piece in 2018 claiming that Depp was abusing her and was a “wife-beater”. These allegations have led Depp and Heard to go to court. In the process, Depp has lost his role as Jack Sparrow in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean film, lost his role as the new titular villain, Grindewald to Mads Mikkelsen in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and now is a blacklisted actor in Hollywood.

Heard still gets to play Mera in Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom (2023), but that is the only work the actress has for the moment. After losing to The Sun in a libel lawsuit case in November 2021, Depp has gone back to court for a defamation case claiming that Heard isn’t telling the truth and has ruined his career. Now fans watch the court case ensue as it continues right now in Fairfax, Virginia.

Under testimony, Depp was asked about his role as Jack Sparrow and if he would ever reprise the role by Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn:

“The fact is, Mr. Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film? Correct?”

gibbs (left) and jack sparrow (right) in pirates of the caribbean

Depp confirmed that he was done playing the iconic captain:

“That is true, Mr. Rottenborn.”

Depp also explained how Disney may have fired him from Pirates, but his character still appears at the parks and rides and is being sold in merchandise:

“They didn’t remove my character from the rides,” he said. “They didn’t stop selling dolls of Captain Jack Sparrow. They didn’t stop selling anything. They just didn’t want there to be something trailing behind me that they’d find.”

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow

Depp went on to testify for hours explaining different incidents of abuse and violence by Heard. One of the prominent moments would be when Depp had to go to the hospital to reattach the top of his severed finger after Heard cut it off.

Heard is expected to testify in the next few days and give her side of the story, but the court case will take weeks before a verdict is reached.

Guests board ill-fated boats at Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, become stranded for almost an hour

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney Parks

When you visit any one of the Disney Parks, one of the first things you want to do is head to your favorite attraction, right? And whether you like the thrilling, fast rides with hairpin turns and 80-foot drops or the slower-moving boat rides that give you the time to nap, contemplate life choices or take photos at an attraction from a new vantage point, for many Disney Parks fans, still the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction is a must!

The same must have been true for the swashbuckling Guests who made their way to New Orleans Square at Disneyland Saturday evening and thought nothing of boarding a boat at the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. They had no idea what they were in for.

Brian Rokos is a crime reporter for the Southern California News Group, and he just happened to be one of the Guests aboard a boat in the shallow waters of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland when the attraction suddenly malfunctioned, causing the boats to simply stop where they were.

“We were at the point in the ride where the women are chasing the men around in circles, and Jack Sparrow is peeking out of a barrel at a pirate who’s talking about the location of the secret treasure,” Rokos said in an interview. “Then suddenly, we stopped.”

Apparently, after several minutes, the music for the attraction stopped, and an announcement was made, requesting Cast Members to come to the aid of the stranded Guests.

According to SFGate, Rokos explained that he had overheard a Cast Member talking about several other Cast Members who had not shown up for work because they were ill, but no one really understood why the ride had malfunctioned or what had caused it to cease operations, except for one Cast Member who mentioned technical difficulties, but didn’t explain any further than that.

Rokos says that after about 40 minutes of waiting in the boats, a Cast Member came to the boat with rubber waders on. He watched as people that were closer to the “land” area of the attraction were evacuated, but he says that he began to feel uneasy as he noticed that he was surrounded by only ride water.

“There’s no way I was going to be able to get out,” he said. “Someone suggested that I should walk the plank, but I had no plank to walk! I had no idea how to get off. We were literally trapped.”

Rokos wasn’t sure what to do.

“I thought, ‘This doesn’t bode well. This is disaster mode,’” he added. “But it turned out to be a good thing.”

In the end, a conscientious Cast Member showed up to push the boat in which Rokos sat, contemplating taking the plunge into the Caribbean waters so that it was closer to the area where Rokos and others could step off “onto dry land.”

New Building Permit Filed for Splash Mountain in Disney World

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney Parks, Magic Kingdom

Via Allears.net

Disney World has been pushing forward with projects all over the property, whether it’s Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure or the Star Wars hotel.

And, the newest Disney permit may be giving us a look at what’s to come in the parks!

Disney has filed a permit through its internal construction firm, Buena Vista Construction Company, to move forward with work on Splash Mountain.

The permit lists that it will “provide labor, material, and/or electrical for construction” at the attraction. While this could be routine maintenance that Splash Mountain usually goes through at this time of the year, the permit is notable as Disney has stated their intention to fast-track the new Princess and the Frog re-theme.

A permit for Pirates of the Caribbean was filed at the same time, so it’s possible that the plan could be for routine maintenance.

However, we’ll be sure to update you on the construction happening at Splash Mountain soon! 

There’s a Petition To Rehire Johnny Depp For Pirates Of The Caribbean

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

Via DisDining.com

When you think of Pirates of the Caribbean, we are guessing Captain Jack Sparrow comes to mind right away. This iconic character in the Pirates movies in many ways defined the movies themselves propelling them to greatness. This is why many are surprised that Disney would continue on without the legendary Captain Jack Sparrow.

Following his legal feud with former wife Amber Heard, Disney seems reluctant to continue to work with Depp moving forward if there were to be a Pirates reboot.

As you’d expect, fans of Jack Sparrow took to social media to show their support for the iconic character and they even started a petition to have the Mouse House rehire Depp, which is currently closing in on 400K signatures on Change.org, as it currently sits at just under 370,000 and is gathering steam rather quickly. It is hard to imagine Pirate without Captain Jack’s charm and charisma.

Previously Dismissed “Pirates of the Caribbean” Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Case is Reopened Following Appeals

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

A previously dismissed lawsuit claiming an infringement of copyright on Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise has been reopened by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a move which could potentially lead to trouble for Disney.

According to Bloomberg Law, Producer Tova Laiter sent a screenplay to Disney back in 2000, which Disney declined to buy. The pitch, which was written by Arthur Lee Alfred II and Ezequiel Martinez Jr., was the basis of the lawsuit against Disney, as the owners claimed similarities between their work and “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, the first “Pirates” film which was released just three years later, in 2003.

The district court who handled this 2017 complaint applied the “filtration test” system to the screenplay, which removes unprotectable elements which can not be used to prove ownership. Here, this would be the generic “pirate movie” themes which one would expect to find in such a genre, which cannot be copyrighted due to their established existence in the public eye. What the court never conducted, however, was a “selection and arrangement” test, which would consider the potentially protectable arrangement of such elements, for instance, the way these pirate themes molded together to create the screenplay which Disney ultimately used. Despite Disney winning the original lawsuit on the basis that generic pirate life cannot be copyrighted, the creators of the pitched screenplay argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit earlier this month for the case’s revival and for these elements to be considered, particularly following the ruling of a similar case  Zindel v. Fox Searchlight over the film “The Shape of Water”. U.S. Circuit Judge Eric F. Melgren claimed that he was ‘troubled’ by the case’s dismissal, due to the ‘closer similarity of issues’ present across both screenplays, which follow similar plot lines and tone.

As the case progresses, this could lead to a clearer weighing of the arrangement of unprotectable elements earlier in copyright infringement cases.