‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ fans will be thrust into an all-new adventure when the fifth instalment in the franchise, ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ hits Australian cinema screens tomorrow (25 May).
Picking up from the end of the third instalment ‘At World’s End’, ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ represents a ten-year time jump, a timing that will coincide nicely with Will Turner’s (Orlando Bloom) return to shore after being damned to a decade under the waves as the captain of the Flying Dutchman.
Aussie actor Brenton Thwaites joins the franchise as Henry Turner, son of Will Turner and grandson to 'Bootstrap' Bill Turner (Stellan Skarsgård). “It’s exciting,” Brenton says of his casting. “These movies have such a huge fan base and so to jump in and continue the storyline is really cool.”
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The plot sees the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly for Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), escape from the Devil's Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea... including him.
Of Javier’s casting, Brenton says: “People know of Javier from his Academy Award win as the baddy in ‘No Country For Old Men’, so he’s already got credit as an international movie star villain. I mean he’s the villain in ‘James Bond’ and he’s the villain in this one, and each character has a completely different look and feel.
“Going into the movie, I was excited to see how he’d change and create a fresh villain and he did it in a way that complements the CGI of the movie, the directors' vision and the overall fresh, supernatural themes.”
Javier Bardem as Captain Salazar
Coming six years after the franchise’s last instalment ‘On Stranger Tides’, ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ marks the largest gap between the ‘Pirates’ films.
Directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (both Academy nominated filmmakers) were charged with reinvigorating the franchise; the final cut contains all the fantastical high-seas action and adventure its predecessors are famous for. “There is a huge CGI element to the movie but we were lucky enough to have had a lot of the set created for us, so there wasn’t really too much imagining monsters and jumping into voids that weren’t yet created.”
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Heaving ships, swashbuckling fight scenes and outmanoeuvring the Royal Navy are par for the course in the ‘Pirates’ franchise and Brenton threw himself into the mêlée, performing most of his own stunts. “I really enjoyed them. There wasn’t too many crazy things, though there was the swinging out of a belltower which was pretty wild.
“I had a couple of fight scenes with a sword, which is obviously my childhood dream come true, and I had to learn a pretty big fight scene a couple of weeks before starting to shoot just to get the movements and practice the choreography. It was strangely like dancing with someone and it’s cool to be dancing with Johnny Depp.”
Asked what sets ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ apart from his previous big-budget movie roles, ‘Gods Of Egypt’ and ‘Maleficent’, Brenton says: “I think this one was a little different in the sense that anything was possible.
"For starters, you had the sense that the directors were really supportive with their ideas and their visions, and in turn were really supportive of us and our choices. This one had a lot of time and energy thrown into the set pieces of this film, which is always great for the filmmaker and the actor. It gives you a little bit more to play with when we jump on set.”
For the Cairns born Brenton, another clear differentiation was ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ being filmed exclusively in Queensland. “It was very special. I was very proud to call myself a Queenslander on set.”
'Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' is now screening nationally.
