All aboard with The Pirates

Captain Jack is back…and so are Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, joined by a roistering shipload of characters both new and familiar, in Walt Disney Pictures’ "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest"–the epic second installment in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" saga. Once again Johnny Depp stars in his Academy Award-nominated role, and there’s also Orlando Bloom and 2005 Best Actress Oscar nominee Keira Knightley.

In this swashbuckling and spectacular follow-up to the blockbuster 2003 film, the decidedly eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow is caught up in another tangled web of supernatural intrigue. Although the curse of the Black Pearl has been lifted, an even more terrifying threat looms over its captain and scurvy crew: it turns out that Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), Ruler of the Ocean Depths, who captains the ghostly Flying Dutchman, which no other ship can match in speed and stealth. Unless the ever-crafty Jack figures a cunning way out of this Faustian pact, he will be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation in the service of Jones.

This startling development interrupts the wedding plans of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who once again find themselves thrust into Jack’s misadventures, leading to escalating confrontations with sea monsters, very unfriendly islanders, flamboyant soothsayer Tia Dalma (Naomie Harries) and even the mysterious appearance of Will’s long-lost father, Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgard).

Meanwhile, ruthless pirate hunter Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) of the East India Trading Company sets his sights on retrieving the fabled Dead Man’s Chest. According to legend, whomever possesses the Dead Man’s Chest gains control of Davy Jones, and Beckett intends to use this awesome power to destroy every last Pirate of the Caribbean once and for all. For times are changing on the high seas, with businessmen and bureaucrats becoming the true pirates…and freewheeling, fun-loving buccaneers like Jack and his crew are threatened with extinction.

"Everything that we set up in the first movie gets pushed forward in the second," producer Jerry Bruckheimer says, "and of course we have the same creative team. Gore (Verbinski) is such a brilliant director, with a wonderful sense of humor and a great visual sense. Johnny, Orlando and Keira are all back for the ride, plus some wonderful and interesting new faces. The Black Pearl will, of course, be back, along with a new mystery ship, the Flying Dutchman, which is crewed by a very exciting and unusual group of sailors under the command of Davy Jones."

"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" not only revived the pirate genre, but kicked off a groundswell of fascination for all things piratical which resulted in everything from a spate of new books about the seafaring scalawags, to a boom in pirates-themed children’s (and adult’s) parties, to pirate dinner shows.

Clearly, there was a worldwide mandate for more "Pirates," and Bruckheimer and Verbinski, along with Walt Disney Pictures, decided that just one sequel would not be enough. It made practical sense, economically, to film two follow-ups simultaneously, taking full advantage of locations, sets and availability of its increasingly in-demand stars.

It also made sense creatively, because with the characters so well established in the first film, taking them on further voyages was an exciting prospect. "We were hoping for the success of ‘The Curse of the Black Pearl’ so that we could make more ‘Pirates’ movies," notes Bruckheimer, "and when you see the second and third films you’ll see that everything relates back to what started everything off in the first. It’s a true trilogy."

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" opens in theaters across the Philippines on July 12.