Geoffrey Rush Prays Johnny Depp Will Join Pirates 4 | SPIKE

Actor Geoffrey Rush, who plays Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, says that he's ready to get busy with the fourth film. That could be a problem since Johnny Depp is in a testy mood after the chairman of Disney, his friend, stepped down/got the boot. Will Johnny Grumpy Pants put the kibosh on the fourth film for Rush and everyone else?

Rush says that he's keeping his schedule open specifically for the fourth Pirates movie, but it's looking like he's the only actor who's definitely onboard this possibly un-seaworthy ship.

They're waiting for the screenplay writers to put together something that's beyond the trilogy, take it off into a new direction so that it's fresh and hopefully really interesting for an audience, that they're not going to just sausage-machine out something else, which wouldn't be so good.

So when will production gear up? Asked if he had any idea when the filming would be gearing up Rush responded, "No, no one tells me anything!" It's good to be on the inside.

Now that Depp has issues with Cook's early retirement, it's possible we won't see him in this franchise again. And if that's the case, what is Disney going to do? Shut this franchise down or replace him? Off the top of my head it's pretty hard to come up with a list of candidates capable of pulling off anything close to a Depp performance. 

It's possible Rush could be waiting awhile to collect his next Pirates pay check. Then again, they say three's a charm. What does that make four? A curse?

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