ON SATURDAY night, the Cannes Film Festival took a rest from art-house fare to welcome the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tidesto La Croisette.
Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz and Geoffrey Rush all trod the red carpet at the premiere of the fourth film in the staggeringly successful fantasy series.
Costing somewhere in the vicinity of $200 million (€141 million) to produce, the noisy, busy film, which involves a search for the fountain of youth, is the first of the series to be presented in 3D.
Speaking at a press conference, Depp, who once again plays the cocky Captain Jack Sparrow, good naturedly batted aside allusions to the tepid reviews the film has already received.
“I’ve always feared the critics,” he said.
“Yeah. They really scare me. That’s why we’ve come here. It’s a great honour to present the film in this arena.”
He continued: “Is it the normal Cannes fare? No, I wouldn’t say that. But we were invited to show it and we are excited about it. The wine isn’t bad. The food’s pretty good. The people are nice.”
Though analysts would be astonished if the film failed to make a fortune,
On Stranger Tides does constitute a minor gamble on producer Jerry Bruckheimer's part.
It has been four years since the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End –the ninth highest grossing film of all time – and, in the interim, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, two key players, have moved away from the franchise.
Johnny Depp remains, however, one of the few modern movie stars who can open a picture. Speaking at Cannes, he pondered how his career had progressed since the days when he generally appeared in low-budget independent projects.
“I am angling my way towards doing what is true to me,” he said. “It just happened that for 20 years or so I made these films that were considered for the most part failures. I built a career on flops and I was quite comfortable in that arena. And then a couple of things hit. It’s a strange ride and you get used to it pretty quickly. You’re on ‘the list’ again.”
Depp also discussed his friendship with Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist, who again appears as Jack Sparrow’s father. “He was amazing to get into the ring with again,” he said.
“He was amazing to share a trailer with. I might write a book on that myself some day.”
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tidesis on general release from Wednesday.