Jack Sparrow

Character Stuart Beattie, who drafted early versions of the film's script, said he created the character Jack Sparrow with Hugh Jackman in mind to play the part. However, since Jackman was not well-known outside of his native Australia, the Johnny Depp was cast instead. Depp found the script quirky; rather than seeking treasure, the crew of the Black Pearl were trying to return it; also, the traditional mutiny had already taken place. Initially Sparrow was, according to Bruckheimer, "a young Burt Lancaster, just the cocky pirate." Jim Carrey was considered for the part, but the production schedule for Pirates of the Caribbean conflicted with Bruce Almighty. Other actors considered for the role include Michael Keaton and Christopher Walken. Eventually, Depp was cast, as Bruckheimer felt he could give the character the edge. When writing the screenplay for The Curse of the Black Pearl, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio envisioned Captain Jack Sparrow as a supporting character in the vein of Bugs Bunny and Groucho Marx. Sparrow represents an ethical pirate, with Captain Barbossa as his corrupt foil, though both characters viewed as both light and dark tricksters. This acts as part of Will Turner's arc, in which Sparrow tells him a pirate can be a good man, like his father. As the storylines progressed, however, Johnny Depp gained recognition as the series's breakout performer in the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, largely becoming the franchise's central figure. Following the success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, the challenge to creating a sequel was, according to Verbinski, "You don't want just the Jack Sparrow movie. It's like having a garlic milkshake. He's the spice and you need a lot of straight men ... Let's not give them too much Jack. It's like too much dessert or too much of a good thing." and now desires immortality. Sparrow struggles with what it takes to be a moral person, after his honest streak caused his doom in the second film. This is mainly shown by his increasingly erratic behaviour and Jack's hallucinations, which appeared to be simply his deranged mind in the beginning where dozens of "Jack Sparrows" appeared to crew the ship in his solitary exile, but later the hallucinations grew more important and there were mainly two "Jacks" constantly arguing about which path to follow: the immortality or the mortality. The last hallucination took place while Jack was imprisoned on the Dutchman, where his honest streak won. By the end of ''At World's End'', Sparrow is sailing to the Fountain of Youth, an early concept for the second film. By September 2006, Mark Zoradi, president of the Disney Motion Pictures Group was quoted as saying, "The third film... will conclude the initial Pirates trilogy, though it is unlikely to be the last Pirates sequel." Terry Rossio said in 2007 that a fourth film was possible, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer expressed interest in a spin-off. Gore Verbinski concurred that "all of the stories set in motion by the first film have been resolved. If there ever were another Pirates of the Caribbean film, I would start fresh and focus on the further adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow." The fourth film was first announced on September 28, 2008, during a Disney event at the Kodak Theatre with Johnny Depp and Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, with Depp in full Captain Jack Sparrow attire, while also wearing the Lone Ranger mask to announce his involvement in a Lone Ranger movie. Depp and Cook appeared in the 2009 D23 Expo and announced Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, a subtitle taken from Tim Powers' novel of the same name, which included the Fountain of Youth and Blackbeard, though the film is not a straight adaptation of the novel. Verbinski did not return to direct the fourth installment and was replaced by Rob Marshall. Johnny Depp Looking to do a family film, Johnny Depp visited the Walt Disney Studios in 2001 when he heard of plans to adapt the Pirates of the Caribbean ride into a film. Depp was excited by the possibility of reviving an old Hollywood genre, Depp was cast on June 10, 2002. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer felt Depp would give the film an edge that could draw teenage and adult audiences despite Disney's reputation for soft children's fare. Depp also said, due to his daughter Lily-Rose Depp being three years old at the time, he watched various cartoons, using Tex Avery and Wile E. Coyote as examples. At the first read-through, Depp surprised the cast and crew by portraying the character in an off-kilter manner. He researched 18th-century pirates and, seeing parallels with modern rock stars, modeled his performance on Keith Richards. Richards later appeared in two cameos as Jack's father, Captain Teague, in ''At World's End and On Stranger Tides''. Verbinski and Bruckheimer had confidence in Depp, partly because Orlando Bloom would play the traditional Errol Flynn-type character. Depp's performance won acclaim from film critics. Alan Morrison found it "Gloriously over-the-top ... In terms of physical precision and verbal delivery, it's a master-class in comedy acting." Roger Ebert praised Depp for drawing away from the character as written and found Depp's performance "original in its every atom. There has never been a pirate, or for that matter a human being, like this in any other movie ... his behavior shows a lifetime of rehearsal". Depp won a Screen Actor's Guild award for his performance, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor, the first in his career. Film School Rejects argued the film made Depp as much a movie star as he was a character actor. Depp's return in ''Dead Man's Chest was the first time he had ever made a sequel. Depp received an MTV Movie Award and a Teen Choice Award for Dead Man's Chest, and was nominated for an Empire Award and another Golden Globe. For his performance in At World's End'', Depp won an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance, as well as a People's Choice Award, a Kids' Choice Award, and another Teen Choice Award. He has signed on to reprise the role for future sequels. Make-up and costumes Depp wears a dreadlock wig in a rock-and-roll approach to a pirate aesthetic. He wears a red bandanna and numerous objects in his hair, influenced by Keith Richards' habit of collecting souvenirs from his travels; Sparrow's decorations include his "piece of eight". and he wore contacts that acted as sunglasses. Sparrow has several gold teeth, two of which belong to Depp, although they were applied during filming. Depp initially forgot to have them removed after shooting The Curse of the Black Pearl, and wore them throughout the shooting of the sequels. Depp also fought for Sparrow to be "missing his nose, with just a bloody wound in its place" for "comedic value"; this subtraction to the character was going to give Sparrow a new fear of the common cold, as well as becoming afraid of other extremely common things. Sparrow also would have avoided pepper, and the water—which would have posed a massive problem for the sea-faring character. Sparrow wears his goatee in two braids. Initially wire was used in them, but the wires were abandoned because they made the braids stick up when Depp lay down. Sparrow has numerous tattoos, Depp liked to stick to one costume, wearing one lightweight silk tweed frock coat throughout the series, and he had to be coaxed out of wearing his boots for a version without a sole or heel in beach scenes. The official line is that none of the costumes from The Curse of the Black Pearl survived, which allowed the opportunity to create tougher linen shirts for stunts. However, one remains which has been displayed in an exhibition of screen costumes in Worcester, England. It was a nightmare for Rose to track down the same makers of Sparrow's sash in Turkey. Rose did not want to silkscreen it, as the homewoven piece had the correct worn feel. Sparrow wears an additional belt in the sequels, because Depp liked a new buckle which did not fit with the original piece. Sparrow's weapons are genuine 18th-century pieces: his sword dates to the 1740s and his pistol is from the 1760s. Both were made in London. Depp used two pistols on set, one of rubber. Both survived production of the first film. Sparrow's magic compass also survived into the sequels, though director Gore Verbinski had a red arrow added to the dial as it became a more prominent prop. As it does not act like a normal compass, a magnet was used to make it spin. Sparrow wears four rings, two of which belong to Depp. Depp bought the green ring in 1989 and the gold ring is a replica of a 2400-year-old ring Depp gave to the crew, though the original was later stolen. The other two are props to which Depp gave backstories: the gold-and-black ring is stolen from a Spanish widow Sparrow seduced and the green dragon ring recalls his adventures in the Far East. Among Depp's additional ideas was the necklace made of human toes that Sparrow wears as the Pelegosto prepare to eat him, and the sceptre was based on one a friend of Depp's owned. During the course of the films, Sparrow undergoes physical transformations. In The Curse of the Black Pearl, Sparrow curses himself to battle the undead Barbossa. Like all the actors playing the Black Pearl crew, Depp had to shoot scenes in costume as a reference for the animators, and his shots as a skeleton were shot again without him. Depp reprised the scene again on a motion capture stage. and rejected initial designs which portrayed him as over 100 years old. In Dead Men Tell No Tales, a young Jack Sparrow appears during a flashback sequence. ==Fictional character biography==