In one of those very interesting and very unexpected announcements, it appears as though Rob Marshall will be the man to replace Gore Verbinski for the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Reports state that Disney had been looking at many different directors, but for the moment, unless the bottom completely falls out on this deal, Rob Marshall is the guy.

For those of you who aren’t so familiar with Mr. Marshall, the announcement comes as a shock because the director is best known for his musical work. He’s only got a few jobs on his resume, but the big one is the 2002 Best Picture winner Chicago, which starred Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, and Renee Zellweger. After that, he moved on to a less-musical period drama in Memoirs of a Geisha — which also pulled in some Oscar gold. His next due film is another musical based on an earlier screenplay written by the legendary Federico Fellini. The film is called Nine and it has a juggernaut cast including Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson, Dame Judi Dench, and Sophia Loren.

Because of the style of film making that we’re used to seeing from Marshall, fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are certainly worried about the selection. Being a big fan of the Pirates movies myself, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t confused by this decision, but I really think when you look long and hard at the choice, it could work. Given his success rate and the amount of Oscars his movies have won, paired with a movie like Memoirs of a Geisha and how well he did creating that world and that culture, we know the guys knows what he’s doing. Maybe a more laid back action/adventure movie will be a fun way for him to spread his wings and fly. It should definitely be interesting to see the final product.

We recently saw what happens when the director of a Best Foreign Language Film takes on a Hollywood movie (Gavin Hood, Tsotsi to X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Hopefully Rob Marshall can prove that a director can step into other genres and still make a great movie in the end.

It’s expected that the movie will cut away from Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, and just bring back Johnny Depp‘s Jack Sparrow as the main focus. Hopefully they’re planning to get Geoffrey Rush back as well and do the fountain of youth storyline!

[Source: Variety Weblog]