Script issues, tricky actor schedules and many, many other things delayed the shooting of the fifth outing of the **Pirates Of The Caribbean **franchise - officially titled Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - but now, with Johnny Depp's injured hand situation getting a little more complicated, the film's production has been delayed yet further.
In early March, Depp injured a finger in an "off-set incident", resulting in a delay to production originally pencilled in as two-weeks long. Now, with a pin inserted into Depp's hand to help fix the problem in the long term, in the short term, the cameras won't be point in Depp's direction soon.
That leaves co-stars Javier Bardem and Geoffrey Rush twiddling their hopefully still moveable thumbs, and directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning (of Kon-Tiki fame) no doubt increasingly stressed.
Meanwhile, 400 or so crew have done what they can to shoot around Depp early in the month, but now the latest instalment of the billion dollar series - the biggest production ever seen in Australia - has stood down half its crew for the time being.
The press release has this to say about the plot of Dead Men Tell No Tales, outlining the McGuffin Jack is drunkenly stumbling after this time.
“Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Capt. Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea… including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.”
As well as Bardem and Rush, newcomers Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites are on board, not forgetting that scurvy dog Scrum (Stephen Graham). With any luck, **Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales **will stick to its July 7, 2017 release date...