When the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out, one of the things that I and an awful lot of other people said was, "SOMEBODY (meaning the scriptwriter) has read Tim Powers' novel "On Stranger Tides." Not that Disney plagiarized the work, really, it's just that an awful lot of the atmosphere and feel of the movie was an awful lot like the atmosphere and feel of "On Stranger Tides."
Well, it turns out that Tim Powers has confessed that his book was in part inspired by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" amusement park ride, just as the movie was based on it.
And it turns out that the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series will be titled "On Stranger Tides" because Disney has finally done the right thing and bought the rights to Powers' book, and the movie will be LOOOOOOSELY based on the book. As indicated in the ending to PotC 3, there will be a search for the Fountain of Youth by pirates, as in the Powers book, but that's the only lock for the fourth installment. All else is up in the air, though there's a general feeling that Barbosa the pirate will probably play a similar role to the one Blackbeard played in the book, since the characters are VERY similar.
In any event, this is the first time I've really been jazzed about a Disney movie since "The Black Hole," since Powers is one of my favorite SF and F authors, and I've read a LOT of SF and F. Unfortunately, there is a potential lesson there. The first three minutes of "The Black Hole" with the majestic music and the simple yet powerful graphics, were wonderful. After that, it rapidly degenerated into a squalid mess of hackwork. So, I'm jazzed, but my anticipation is ... tempered. Even if the movie turns out to be a wreck, it's amazing to see a movie company do the right thing and acknowledge the source material it borrowed from. Especially (cough-Lion King-cough) Disney.
