Making Pirates of the Carribean sequels
Terry Rossi Blog
These are excerpts from screenwriter Terry Rossi's blog about making the "Pirates" sequels: Gore
and the Producers have moved heaven and earth with the schedule so Chow Yun-Fat can play the
role of the Captain Sao Feng in P3. It's an intense combination of juggling Chow's schedule, set
construction deadlines, ship construction, crew arriving at location, actor availability, and finding the
money in the budget, etc. The studio folk seem curiously nonchalant about getting Yun-Fat on board,
but in this case, the producers are doing an excellent job of looking out for the studio's financial
interest. And Chow is only, like, walking film history, and it's a huge win when he commits to the film.
So now a writing deadline. Chow Yun-Fat needs to have his scenes delivered as early as possible --
his process is to memorize his lines phonetically as well as have them translated. This means we
have to have the Singapore sequence (12 pages!) finished -- and locked down, meaning we don't
have the luxury of making a final pass the day before, or even last second changes at rehearsal or on
set. Chow Yun-Fat is so incredibly charming! Upon meeting him, he bows, and in broken English
says ... "I am the luckiest man," then smiles and points to the heavens, shouting: "I'm the last person
invited to the party!" I learn that his first name is Yun-Fat (you can tell by the hyphen, which usually
indicates a first name, and Chinese names commonly list the surname first). Chow Yun-Fat, following
a tradition in his home film industry, always takes the time to thank each and every member of the
crew at the end of the day's shooting. Part of his particular thank-you style is often an embrace and big
kiss, and some of the more manly men of the crew have been taken to ducking out of range after that
last shot ... Name-dropping time ... one of the Those Great Moments Being a Screenwriter ... I'm on
the Black Pearl, and I look down ... and there performing our scene is: Johnny Depp. And Orlando
Bloom. And Kiera Knightly. And Chow Yun Fat. And Geoffrey Rush. Any one of those actors could open
a film, and there are five of them, all together on deck. And with them in the scene is Naomi Harris,
who in my opinion is as good as anyone there. The same applies for Lee Arenberg, and Mackenzie
Crook, and Kevin McNally. Wow, this is the first time, in any of the films, where all those actors are all
together at one time. Dazzling.
Much more about making of the movie on Rossi's blog.
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