Disney has been making some big announcements lately: their acquisition of Marvel Studios; a partnership with the great Guillermo del Toro; the motion capture remake of Yellow Submarine; and now this, the officially announcement of the title for Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

The fourth movie in one of the biggest movie franchises of all time will now be called Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (click image for full title graphic). The flick is locked and loaded with crucial Johnny Depp set to return as Jack Sparrow. To lower the budget a bit, both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley will not be returning, unless they appear in small cameos.

Also expected to return is Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa, but this is not confirmed yet. The high hopes is that the Fountain of Youth storyline set up at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will be used here. It also appears that there is a book titled On Stranger Tides that does involve the Fountain, so questions have also arisen as to if this will be the source material for the fourth film.

No official word on the premise of Pirates 4 has been shared, but you can check out the synopsis for this book and its mention of said Fountain of Youth on the other side.

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.

Coming Soon was able to grab Disney’s Head of Production Oren Aviv at San Diego Comic Con 2009 and ask him a few questions. One of the juicy bits that they were able to abstract from the Disney head had to do with the next chapter in one of the biggest franchises ever: Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

Aviv confirmed that they were indeed still all about making another Pirates movie, and that they actually wanted to start shooting it next Spring for a 2011 release. Since the final movie of the trilogy, At World’s End, had come and gone, we all knew another flick would be coming. Judging by the last images we saw, it was expected to focus of course on Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) going after the legendary Fountain of Youth. It was also expected that stars like Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom would be left out of the project to save money — a move that would probably help the franchise overall.

It’s being reported that Orlando Bloom will be stepping into the world of science fiction for The Cross, which will be directed by Andrew Niccols (Lord of War).

The Cross will be set in the very near future and follows Bloom’s character as he attempts to do what no other has, and cross this incredibly mysterious border.

The movie also stars Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises, Brotherhood of the Wolf) as a guard who is determined to stop Bloom from crossing, and Olga Kurylenko (Hitman, Quantum of Solace) as the “female lead” — or eye candy, if you will.