Yesterday we got wind that Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides was facing budget cuts. Not a real surprise, but as it turns out the story is completely fabricated based on educated speculation over a few quotes that suggest the studio is being smarter with their money.
And then there’s this quote from Bruckheimer: “He wants to be mean and lean and make these movies very entertaining but also very cost effective.”
And this quote from director Rob Marshall: “We’re all working hard to keep it as lean as possible…. It’s a tricky time in the economy. You can’t be insane.”
Yet even though he’s sure the LA Times story is a pack of lies, he kind of admits that he doesn’t actually know what Pirates of the Caribbean 4’s budget will be. He says “My guess is the budget on P4 will be higher than P1.”
So lets all leave it to the writer – who admits there IS no budget yet – to put his guess forward and we will go with that.
I suspect that with this tighter economy, even money printing franchises like Pirates will done on as lean a budget as they can. They want to satisfy the bean counters, and with other films being made for less and looking as good? Why the hell not?
So when they finally throw a budget on the table, then we can compare how it stacks against other Pirates films. ‘Kay?
