Source:Edward Douglas

November 5, 2008

Back in September, Walt Disney Pictures threw a huge presentation for all their upcoming movies, which culminated in big announcements about new installments of two of the studio's biggest franchises done in collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and a third "National Treasure," as well as their intentions of reinventing The Lone Ranger. (You can read part of our report on that presentation here.)

Since the announcement, there's been a lot of rumors especially about that fourth "Pirates" movie, but earlier today, ComingSoon.net and a group of journalists had some time to sit down with Jerry Bruckheimer on the set of potentially his next big Disney franchise, based on the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, to get some first-hand info about these projects.

As far as getting all of these new projects off the ground, Bruckheimer joked, "That's why I can't spend a lot of time here. We have a lot of things," and mentioned some of the projects he's actively working on. "We're doing another 'National Treasure' so we're working on that, we're preparing 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' right now—it's going to be shot in New York—we have another picture that's in post-production that we're finishing called 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' with Isla Fischer and Hugh Dancy, so that comes out in February."

As far as approaching the sequels for "National Treasure" and "Pirates of the Caribbean," Bruckheimer says that both are having scripts written. "We've sat with the writers and we're working up the story and plotlines right now. They're in the process of finishing 'The Lone Ranger' so they're working on both of those simultaneously, same set of writers, Elliot and Rossio, who did all three 'Pirates' and worked on 'National Treasure (2)'"

When asked whether they might consider gearing another "Pirates" movie to IMAX, based on the success Warner Bros. had with The Dark Knight, Bruckheimer responded, "Absolutely. I'd love to do it, so let's just see if we can work it through the production schedule with everything else."

"I think they're pushing towards 2012," Bruckheimer told us about the possible release date for this fourth "Pirates" movie. "Hopefully we can make it we'll see."

In other Bruckheimer project news, it was confirmed at the Disney event that Johnny Depp would also play Tonto in Bruckheimer and Disney's new version of The Lone Ranger, but when Bruckheimer was asked about the rumors of George Clooney playing the title character, he denied that it was confirmed. "We haven't decided who is going to play the Lone Ranger yet. Get a director first and then figure it out."

Look for more on ComingSoon.net's visit to the set of Prince of Persia sometime next year, since it doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend 2010.