Keith Richards on Johnny Depp, the Scream Awards and talking like a pirate

SCREAM AWARDS, airing 10 p.m., TUESDAY, OCT. 27 on SPIKE TV

You never know who you're going to meet at the Scream Awards -- last year I found myself standing between Marilyn Manson and George Lucas -- and this year didn't disappoint. Not long after I arrived at the Greek Theatre for the taping of this year's show I was whisked off to a trailer for an unexpected interview with a guitar hero who qualifies as true rock royalty -- even if he was tapping his cigarette into an ashtray he had just made out of aluminum foil.

"I've never see one of these shows," Keith Richards said with a rasp and a chuckle, "but it sounded like fun and when I heard Johnny was going to be involved, I said, 'Well, at least I'll know somebody there.'"

Richards meant Johnny Depp, of course, the actor who based a good bit of his Jack Sparrow screen persona on the bleary, decadent charm of the Rolling Stones guitarist. Depp even brought Richards into the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise for a cameo as Sparrow's father. For the youngest generations of movie fans, the 65-year-old musician actually may be better known for his sea-dog duty than he is for playing the signature riffs in "Satisfaction," "Gimme Shelter" and "Start Me Up."

"Yeah, it's always cropped up, ever since I was in the movie and some kids even think I'm Johnny's dad," Richards said. "Like his real dad. That's not so bad, right?" Then, with a wink, he added: "We might enlarge upon that in another movie."

Depp may be the biggest movie star in the world right now, but later, during the taping (shown in photo above), he was the picture of respectful deference to Richards as he presented his British elder with the Rock Immortal Award. It's a trophy that maybe they should call the Rock Undead Award, considering its past winners were Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne. Those previous winners have long and interesting careers but they can't really compete with a member of the Stones as far as pop-culture heft. I said as much to Richards and, behind a haze of smoke, he grinned. "Yeah, really, we're going uptown now."

Richards and Depp were born 20 years and an ocean apart, but their close friendship has become a topic of fascination. Rolling Stone (the magazine, not the band) put the pair on its cover in 2007 with a story that read like a long valentine to a pair of roadhouse souls who just happen to be wildly rich and famous. The pair met in the mid-1990s and Richards talks of Depp as a peer, not a protege.

"We've grown together," Richards said."Funny enough, I met Johnny through my son, Marlon, who said, 'Dad, this my mate, Johnny.' I knew the name but not much more. He was just a friend of my son's, I didn't know more than that. It's been grand."

Richard needed to get going, so I asked one last question: Looking back on rock and its history, was it strange to him that we've reached a point where young consumers show more marketplace enthusiasm for buying ring tones and guitar-playing video games than albums?

He shrugged and said it was all just part of the evolution of a revolution. "It's interesting how the music has pervaded everywhere. You have video games now and movies and commercials and TV. You can't get escape it. There's the air you breathe and there's rock 'n' roll."

As I left the trailer I noticed that Depp had been waiting patiently right outside the door for his turn to visit with his pal and, when he did enter the smoky trailer, he had a big smile on his face.

-- Geoff Boucher

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PHOTOS: Top two photos by Kevin Winter / Getty Images. Johnny Depp portrait by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times.

READER POLL: 'The Hobbit' will triumph but 'X-Men' and 'Pirates' franchises should quit now

FOUR FRANCHISES AT A CROSSROADS

 

Talk about heroic: Four film franchises, one decade, more than $10 billion worth of theater tickets sold.

And more than that, in their very best moments, each of these franchises shown above delivered sparkling adventure and escapism for moviegoers. Now, though, with the decade winding down and all four franchises sitting a nice tidy trilogy, the question must be asked: Isn't three the magic number? Do we really need a fourth movie from any of these aging popcorn enterprises? Clearly, all of them will be written up in the Hollywood history books but right now the indelicate must be asked: "How can we miss you if you won't leave?"

Last week we gave you an in-depth report on this quartet of mega-franchises and their quests for a fourth visit to theaters. We told you how "The Hobbit" must escape the the towering shadow of "The Lord of the Rings," while Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" series needs to get back to its roots to thrive. We also explained that the "X-Men" future looks especially uncertain while the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise might be facing a one-man mutiny with Johnny Depp's distress over recent changes at Disney.

We also put the question to you: Which of these franchises is making a mistake by adding a fourth film?

You made it clear that "The Hobbit," with director Guillermo del Toro taking over with a new vision, is in a class by itself -- the other franchises may tack on new editions to cash in, but fans are expecting nothing but magic from Del Toro's arrival in Middle-earth. The remaining three franchises got a frostier reception. For five days last week, more than half of our reader voters named "Pirates" as the cinematic series that should walk the plank. Over the weekend that changed and (with a lot of late-arriving Depp fans?) the surging "X-Men" became the top choice as a franchise hitting bottom.

It's not too late, though, we'll take votes for the next 48 hours before declaring our, uh, winning loser. In the meantime, thanks for reading, commenting and voting.

-- Geoff Boucher

  

VOTE: WHICH FRANCHISE IS MAKING A MISTAKE WITH A FOURTH FILM?

   

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Photos at top, from left, Ian McKellen in "Lord of the Rings," Tobey Maguire in "Spider-Man," Halle Berry in "X-Men: The Last Stand" and Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean."  Credits from left: New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios. Bottom photo of Sam Raimi by Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Is the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film franchise a sinking ship?

FOUR FRANCHISES AT A CROSSROADS: PART 4

This week, we're taking a look at four major trilogies from this decade that are looking to add a fourth film despite substantial challenges -- not least among those challenges the skepticism of moviegoers who may wonder whether some of these Hollywood vehicles are running on empty. You can find the other three installments of the series right here.

 

 "Pirates of the Caribbean"

The story so far: Back in 2003, in the months before the release of the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film, few observers thought the venture was seaworthy. It was a $135-million movie based on a Disneyland ride -- a crass approach to filmmaking that had given the world the furry failure of "The Country Bears" just a year earlier. The movie was also a pirate film -- a genre that went out of style in Errol Flynn's lifetime and  produced the cringe-worthy flop "Cutthroat Island" less than a decade earlier. The star, meanwhile, was Johnny Depp, an actor who had proved himself too quirky for the American moviegoing public (he had starred in only one film, "Sleepy Hollow," that topped $100 million in U.S. box office). On paper, it looked like madness, but, of course, it turned out to be a treasure map. Depp's bleary rogue, Jack Sparrow, would become a signature character in modern popcorn-film history (and earn Depp an Academy Award nomination) while director Gore Verbinski tapped into a rollicking mix of adventure, supernatural thrills and comedy. The first film pulled in $654 million worldwide. The sequel did even better -- it's $1.06 billion worldwide made it the highest-grossing film of 2006. A third film in 2007 brought in $961 million. A fourth installment, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," is due in 2011.

The challenge: There are plenty. The first film was fresh, fun and unexpected, but the franchise started to get creaky as soon as it came back for a second voyage. The third film was oddly long and labored -- didn't this franchise start as a swashbuckling lark? -- and left critics sounding as though they'd found a drowning victim in the theater aisle. Claudia Puig of USA Today called it a "bloated, overwrought and convoluted three-hour misfire." Still, money was made, and Disney wanted to keep this ship afloat, so a new approach was taken with this fourth film: The studio secured the rights to "On Stranger Tides," a 1987 novel by fantasy author Tim Powers that weaves a tale of pirates, voodoo and the fountain of touth, making this the first adapted work in the series. That move was made (presumably) to save the next film from the loopy and confusing plot threads of the last installment. That's all to the good, but there's also the question of who will replace Verbinski, who decided that after three films it was time to go ashore. Rob Marshall ("Chicago") is the name that is everywhere, but his hiring has not been publicly confirmed by the studio as I type this. Really, though, the more pressing worry: What would "Pirates" do if its jolly anti-hero Jack Sparrow decided at this late date to abandon ship?

The status: The plan is to start filming in the spring (that according to an MTV interview with costar Geoffrey Rush).  The venture got off to a sunny start when Depp, proving himself a real trouper, showed up at a Disney convention in Anaheim in his full Sparrow costume and makeup to promote the film. Depp and Dick Cook, the longtime Disney studio executive who was a key player in the "Pirates" franchise, smiled, hugged and mugged for the cameras and fans. Then, just days later, Cook was kicked to the curb by his corporate bosses. Depp, in an interview with Claudia Eller of the Los Angeles Times, said he was "shocked and very sad" and admitted that there was "a crack in my enthusiasm" for the planned "Pirates" sequel.

The prediction: Depp is in an interesting spot here. He does a lot of work with Disney ("Alice in Wonderland" is now in post-production, and Disney officials say the "Lone Ranger" project is still out there on the horizon line) and I would imagine that, contractually, it would be very difficult for him to walk away from "Pirates" at this point too. (If he does walk away, it would be a thunderbolt announcement that would fracture his relations with the studio and cause a great deal of embarrassment for Disney CEO Bob Iger, the fellow who pushed Cook out onto the plank.) Depp showed himself to be a team player by dressing up as Sparrow for the aforementioned promotional event, but he also flashed his maverick spirit by publicly siding with the long-gone Cook. From my vantage point, that suggests he might honor his commitment to a fourth "Pirates" voyage and then set sail in a new direction.

-- Geoff Boucher

 
Four major franchises look to make a fourth film, but should they?

VOTE: WHICH FRANCHISE IS MAKING A MISTAKE WITH A FOURTH FILM?

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Photos: From top, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom lead the way in "Pirates of the Caribbean." Credit: Walt Disney Studios.  Johnny Depp and Dick Cook. Credit: Walt Disney Studios. Johnny Depp portrait. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Surprised author Tim Powers finds himself setting sail with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' [Updated]

Last month, Johnny Depp walked on stage at the Anaheim Convention Center in his Jack Sparrow costume and delighted a surprised audience of Disney fans with his rummy buccaneer's trademark mutter. Within an hour, in San Bernadino, an award-winning fantasy author named Tim Powers found a flurry of emails from surprised friends and fans filling his inbox.

The reason for the e-mail barrage: Depp's theatrical appearance at Disney's D23 Expo included the announcement that the fourth Sparrow film will be entitled "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," which echoes the name of a 1987 fantasy novel by Powers about pirates and the Fountain of Youth. Everyone wanted to know if Powers had hit the Hollywood jackpot -- or if he needed to be in touch with his attorney.

Powers was in a tricky spot -- he wanted to publicly celebrate a career windfall but the folks at Disney had made it clear that he was supposed to keep everything under wraps. He was more surprised than anyone that the title had been trumpeted at Disney's new promotional convention.

"I was still -- as far as I understood -- not free to talk about it," the  author told me Monday. "Then about a week ago my agent wrote and said, 'You're now able to say that in fact Disney did option the book.' That happened a while ago, it'll be three years in April."

The novelist, with a dozen books to his credit, is still a bit dazed by the fact that a book he published during the Reagan administration will setting sail in May 2011 as new edition of a Disney franchise that has racked up $1.78 billion in worldwide box office since hoisting its flag in 2003. "Yes, I'm thrilled," Power said, "I think it's great."

The 57-year-old is a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, taking the prize home for "Last Call" (the 1992 tale based in the gritty underbelly of Las Vegas that weaves in tales on ancient magic and wagers for the soul) and "Declare" (a 2001 novel that presents the secret supernatural history of Cold War spies and conspiracies). All of his books, he says, have "some kind of supernatural stuff going on, it's the only sort of stories I can think of."

Powers is intrigued to see how Hollywood will bend his historical fantasy to its needs. In the original form, "On Stranger Tides" was the tale of "Jack Shandy" Chandagnac, who is the son of a British puppeteer who gave up the family marionette tradition after his father died destitute. He sets sail for Jamaica to find the nefarious uncle who stole his father's rightful inheritance but en route he is captured by pirates who practice sorcery -- they give him the choice of joining their ranks or execution. Soon he reluctantly falls into service to Blackbeard, who is on a quest to locate the Fountain of Youth.

"I've watched all the movies several times, of course, and I think the clear thing they would use is the trip to the Fountain of Youth," Powers said. "My main character doesn't overlap with Jack Sparrow at all [in personality or circumstance]; they're totally different characters. I suppose they might overlap the Geoffrey Rush character Barbossa and Blackbeard. The only thing I feel certain they will hold on to is the Fountain of Youth since they telegraphed that at the end of the last movie." Either way, Powers said he is not going to walk into the theater with too many expectations other than hoping to have a good time as a moviegoer.

"Some people said, 'Powers are you worried that they're going to mess up your book?' and I always think of something James Cain, the author of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice,' said when people asked what he thought of the things Hollywood had done to his books; he pointed to the bookshelf and said, 'They haven't done anything to them, look.' That's my attitude. Just take all the fun stuff and, of course, any checks.... It strikes me as unrealistic to look at it in any other way."

Still, Powers has a bit of concern about the project as it moves forward, considering some recent reports. On Sept. 18, after the D23 Expo, Depp spoke to Claudia Eller of the Los Angeles Times and said that the abrupt ouster of longtime Disney studio chief Dick Cook had dampened his interest in a fourth "Pirates" film.

"There's a fissure, a crack in my enthusiasm at the moment," the star said, saying also that he was "shocked and very sad" to see Cook walk the corporate plank after playing such a key role in the "Pirates" success story. "Pirates" would also be moving forward without Gore Verbinski, the director of the opening trilogy. On Monday, Powers sounded like a man who wishes he could cast a voodoo spell on all the Hollywood players who are navigating the cinematic ship of the "Pirates" franchise. "Nobody talk to each other, everyone just stand and smile, don't do anything to mess this up, let's keep this going, OK?" 

-- Geoff Boucher 

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Photos: Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow; Depp with former Disney executive Dick Cook. Credit: Walt Disney Co. Tim Powers photo courtesy of the author.

UPDATED: I typed "Civil War" instead of "Cold War" in an earlier version of this post when describing the novel "Declare."

  Thanks to reader SF Strangelove for catching that.

Four major franchises look to make a fourth film -- but should they? [Updated]

They are four of the biggest franchises in Hollywood history and each is at a major crossroads. This week the Hero Complex will look at "The Lord of the Rings," "Spider-Man," "X-Men" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" and size up their future as they attempt to move past their original trilogies and into a new decade.

Tuesday "Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit": How can Guillermo del Toro possibly match up to Peter Jackson's magical conquests ($2.92 billion in global box office and 17 Oscars including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay)? At least he has Jackson on his side ...

Wednesday "Spider-Man": Director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are back for more and that's no surprise considering "Spider-Man 3" had the highest-grossing opening weekend of the wall-crawling films -- and went on to make $891 million worldwide. Still, the last film got decidedly mixed reviews, and some fans are wondering if the magic is gone.

Thursday: "X-Men": The summer 2000 release of Bryan Singer's "X-Men" truly signaled the beginning of the modern era of superhero cinema and its new ambitions. While the 2006 release of "X-Men: The Last Stand" led to commercial success ($459 million), the hero-snuffing plot, the finality of the title and those cruel reviews all suggested the run was over. Now, though, producers are looking for a return to the mutant chronicles...

Friday "Pirates of the Caribbean" : The fourth film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," hits theaters in 2011, but after a shake-up at the top of Walt Disney Studios, star Johnny Depp said he is feeling glum about the project. If he's not excited, should you be?

Check back to read them all, but in the meantime, give us your opinion: Which franchise would be making the biggest mistake by continuing past the original trilogy? Vote below ...

-- Geoff Boucher

Photos from left, Ian McKellen in "Lord of the Rings," Tobey Maguire in "Spider-Man," Halle Berry in "X-Men: The Last Stand" and Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean."  Credits from left: New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios.

UPDATED: Previous version of this post had an incorrect year of release on one of the X-films.

Johnny Depp (in Jack Sparrow costume) surprises Disney D23 Expo audience

Johnny Depp, arguably the biggest movie star in the world, surprised the audience of Walt Disney Co.'s D23 Expo in Anaheim by sailing on stage in his famous pirate regalia.

As 5,000 fans jumped to their feet, the star emerged in full character, with his bleary ballet of the forever besotted Jack Sparrow.

Cracking wise about rum he also said he'd like a little snack -- that nice frog named Kermit who had been on stage earlier and "probably tastes like chicken."

Disney executive Dick Cook played the straight man for the short presentation and it was the least he could do: The "Pirates" franchise has pulled in more than $1 billion in domestic box-office alone and Depp is also on tap for a fourth, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" in 2011. (An earlier version of this post had scrambled title and date -- blame the blackberry!) Depp is also starring "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Lone Ranger" for the Mouse House.

Depp arrived on stage in gliding replica of the Black Pearl pirate ship and, before they saw his famous face, the crowd was cheering at the sight of his silhouette behind a billowing back-lit sail and pumping stage smoke. Depp was the big finale in a program that featured appearances by John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Tim Burton and a performance by Miley Cyrus. Check back here more details on the program, as well as info on Guillermo del Toro's newly announced venture with Disney and Pixar.

-- Geoff Boucher

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The Hero Complex is officially supporting Viggo Mortensen for the role of mystery man of the Old West because, after seeing "Hidalgo" and the trailer for "Appaloosa," we just think he does the dusty-trail adventure thing with a nice flair.

George Clooney would also give Disney a powerhouse tandem at the top of this hoped-for franchise, as well as some major opportunity for the type of winking humor that gave "Pirates of the Caribbean" its box-office flair. Clooney may be too old, but we still think he has enough silver bullets in his ammo belt. Depp, meanwhile, may be just five years shy of 50 but still approaches his acting career like a kid rummaging through a trunk of dress-up costumes. Not only will the part-Cherokee Depp be wearing the fringed buckskin, he will also be donning the garb of a pirate, a vampire, a gangster and, um, a guy with a funny hat.

The Oscar nominee has a busy schedule, to say the least. On Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Disney gathered the press for a preview of its upcoming major releases and announced that Depp will be back in eyeliner as Jack Sparrow, the rummy scoundrel of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which will have a fourth installment with Jerry Bruckheimer back as producer. The franchise has already pulled in $2.6 billion at the box office. (Bruckheimer will also produce the Lone Ranger movie.)

Other Depp projects coming include a turn as the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," which will be a 2010 animated release with a motion-capture approach in the same vein as "Beowulf." It will be Depp's seventh major project with Burton -- and No. 8 will be "Dark Shadows," yet another black-cape affair for the movie-making partnership, this one a remake of the baroque soap opera from the late 1960s and early 1970s about an accursed family in Maine that, we suspect, had a lasting effect on a local youngster named Stephen King.

Depp will also be robbing banks as the gentlemen bandit John Dillinger in Michael Mann's period gangster flick "Public Enemies," due in theaters next year. That film also stars Christian Bale.

-- Geoff Boucher

Johnny Depp photo from December 2007 by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times

Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, from the Los Angeles Times archives.