Shiver me real timbers

UNDER a high, hot September sky, Disney Studios has clearly surrendered. Deep in the heart of the back lot, all those striding, BlackBerry-monitoring employees give way to denizens of a different sort. Pirates of every hue, hair configuration and state of personal hygiene. Pirates in velvet, silk and leather. Chinese pirates and African pirates, French pirates and Arab pirates, 150 of them all told, some rock star, some scurvy dog.

They are gathered for a rare meeting of the Brethren Court at dark and dangerous, and geographically indeterminate, Shipwreck Cove.

If, on this scandalously fine autumn day, these particular pirates appear to be milling rather than marauding -- lounging about outside Soundstage 2, eating lunch, talking on cellphones -- it is just an illusion, a rip between worlds. Reality lies within. Step inside.

Many movie sets are, to an outsider, disappointing. The cameras, cables and other equipment easily dwarf a house or an apartment, even a hotel, leaving only the smallest nest of space in which the actors must perform. A castle high atop a hill can turn out to be cleverly painted scrims in front of a blue screen, the exteriors shot from teeny-tiny models.

But no one would call the Shipwreck Cove set from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," opening May 25, disappointing. Which is a very good thing. The third installment in the wildly successful Johnny Depp franchise, "World's End," is, to put it mildly, highly anticipated. The first two have grossed almost $800 million domestically -- not bad for a narrative arc based on a theme park ride. Inside a cavernous soundstage (previously flooded and used for the treasure cave and bayou scenes in the first two "Pirates" films), amid steam and smoke and flame, there are, of course, a forest of cameras and monitors, cables and sound equipment and lights, not to mention all the people who work them. But they are barely noticeable next to the ships.

There are ships for every sort of pirate, the prows of which cut through the darkness, bedecked with women and dragons, with gilt and barnacles. There are half a dozen full-scale partial models, behind which runs a 300-foot hand-painted background scrim depicting more ships in various sizes and perspectives. In the middle of it all is a great and splendid wreck, the meeting place of the pirate lords and home to Capt. Teague Sparrow, keeper of the Pirates Code, who clearly shares some sort of bloodline -- and certainly a stylist -- with Depp's Capt. Jack Sparrow.