Not much was known of the new Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie that was well on its way to us, but one might imagine that Disney had plans of bringing another massive water-filled adventure much like their Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. They had gotten so far as to hire Terminator Salvation director McG to helm the flick, and names like Will Smith were rumored for the role of Captain Nemo. None of this matters anymore now, as Disney has slammed the brakes on with force and stopped all forward progress on the project.

The movie was set to tell an origins tale of the fabled Captain Nemo and the building of his ship, the Nautilus. It was actually on the fast track at one point, but it appears that the controversial firing of popular chairman Dick Cook may have knocked it off its course for the time being. The original 1954 film starred Kirk Douglas and it was Disney’s very first live-action film production.

Update: It seems like all Prince of Persia trailers were released at the same time, including International trailers. As it turns out, one of these International trailers was a little better than the trailer we got, so you can now see that below as well!

It’s been a long time coming, but the first official movie trailer for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer‘s video game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has been unveiled by MySpace.

The trailer certainly makes its intents known immediately, and it’s pretty clear that movie-goers are either going to love it or hate it passionately. What really stands out is the visuals, which are without doubt very beautifully done. The big concern lies within the cast, which started the very moment that Jake Gyllenhaal was cast as a Persian prince. This now has secondary concerns attached to it because Jake is also going to be attempting an accent, as you’ll be able to tell, and also because it appears that he and his co-star Gemma Arterton don’t look like they have very convincing chemistry together. With a supporting cast that includes Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina, there is hope that these things can be overlooked, but Prince of Persia has a little mountain to climb if it wants to start winning our hearts and wallets.

Click on over to see the trailer for yourself and share with us your thoughts on the potential of this movie — a movie whose producers hope it will become a new mega-franchise similar to another franchise that they have: Pirates of the Caribbean.

It’s been sheer chaos in the world of Disney lately. It began with a ton of exciting announcements out of the D23 Expo, but was capped off with the shocking news that long time and much-loved Chairman Dick Cook was leaving, most likely due to being fired (Read: Unexpected Cherry On Top: Disney Chairman Dick Cook Fired? “˜Pirates 4″² Doomed?!). When this news broke, as you’ll recall, it didn’t take long before Cook’s friend Johnny Depp shared his distaste for the news, and that he now wasn’t so sure if he wanted to do Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — the fourth movie in Disney’s mammoth franchise — anymore.

To add to this madness, a source has told Cinema Blend that while there’s a chance Depp will still do On Stranger Tides, he “definitely” will not be doing the fifth and sixth installments that they have planned for the franchise. It looks like Disney may have to throw a pile of the money at the most popular actor working today in order to will him back once more, but after that, they are saying that they would even go as far as replacing Captain Jack Sparrow with an entirely new character — which would quite possibly be the ballsiest move ever made.

If you visit the site everyday (or any movie site, for that matter), you know that recently there was a massive shower of Disney-related news announced at their D23 Expo — most of which were revealed by Disney Chairman, Dick Cook. Most of the news was very exciting, including big news about a Muppet takeover, information on big Pixar sequels Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, and the official title for the fourth movie in their Pirates franchise: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

After this Christmas morning of announcements, the last thing you would expect to top it all off would be bad news, but that’s just what we’ve been given. It’s being reported by Nikki Finke that after 38 years of service, and an impressively popular reputation, Chairman Dick Cook has now been fired by Disney President and CEO Bob Iger. There are reports that the two weren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye, as well.

It was initially reported that he had innocently just “stepped down” from his position, which Disney is standing by, even though Finke has multiple updates on her report that quote various Disney insiders who are saying that it was a firing, and not one that is being taken lightly. People that have worked with him are crushed by this news, and that it reminds them of when former Disney topper Michael Eisner fired Jeffrey Katzenberg. Even worse, they’re wondering who they could possibly replace him with, saying “I don’t know who Iger thinks he can find who’ll be able to come in there and already have relations with Spielberg, and Zemeckis, and Bruckheimer, and Lasseter, and Burton, like this guy had,” which is accompanied by rumors that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige “impressed the hell out of” Iger while the Marvel deal was being worked out…so take that as you will.

Click over for more, including the possible fate of Pirates of the Caribbean straight from the mouth of Johnny Depp, and the official statements from both Cook and Iger.

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.