Pirates Of The Caribbean Dead Man S Chest Movie

Johnny Depp's stunt double in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films has sued the Walt Disney Co. and producer Jerry Bruckheimer for negligence stemming from a practice stunt that landed him in the hospital with serious injuries. The accident occurred in July 2005 as stuntman Tony Angelotti was rehearsing a "human yo-yo stunt" designed to simulate Depp's character, Capt. Jack Sparrow, falling and rolling in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

The most popular ride at Disneyland on Saturday afternoon was the red carpet for the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" world premiere. It was also the longest. The red carpet was more than 1,000 feet, unrolled straight down Main Street, snaking by Fantasyland and stopping at Adventureland.

MOLLUSK-FACED Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the sea phantoms that crew the ghostly Flying Dutchman in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" are part human, part sea bottom creatures brought to life by a new generation of motion capture and computer-generated special effects.

JOHNNY DEPP has never played it safe as an actor. One of his biggest gambles was turning his Capt. Jack Sparrow character into a seafaring Keith Richards in the 2003 blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." His outlandishly funny, quirky and sometimes even effeminate performance was a risk worth taking: It brought him the Screen Actors Guild Award and his first best actor Oscar nomination.

If the big surprise of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" was Johnny Depp's kohl-eyed, rock-star pirate (and that a film based on a theme park ride could be so good), the revelation of the sequel is a traditional-to-the-point-of-being-retro cliffhanger ending. Not since the days of Tom Mix have audiences been left dangling in such an extreme way.

Talk about a pirate's treasure. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" has given Hollywood's summer season a big boost, shattering the weekend box-office record with an estimated take of $132 million in the United States and Canada. Walt Disney Co.'s adventure-comedy sequel, starring Johnny Depp as the woozy, swaggering Capt. Jack Sparrow, keelhauled previous record holder "Spider-Man," which grossed $114.8 million in its first three days of release in 2002.

Another weekend, another plundering. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" powered through its second weekend at the box office, grossing an estimated $62.2 million in the U.S. and Canada to bring its 10-day total to a record $258.2 million. Walt Disney Co.'s juggernaut sequel, which earlier broke the first-day and opening-weekend records, left two new comedies in its wake this weekend -- Sony Pictures' "Little Man" and Universal Pictures' "You, Me and Dupree."

It's tempting, as some have done, to call Johnny Depp the king of the weirdo actors -- and heaven knows, with charmless, bizarro turns like his Michael Jackson-esque Willy Wonka, he has on occasion laid claim to the title. But if his performances were merely odd for oddness' sake, like the dressed-up ham served by declining greats such as Marlon Brando or Rod Steiger, they wouldn't connect so zingily with the audience.

Pirates kept pillaging the movie box office over the weekend, but monsters scared up plenty of business as well. Walt Disney Co.'s "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" became the fastest film in history to pass $300 million in the U.S. and Canada, grossing an estimated $35 million in its third weekend. The action comedy became the first movie of the year to top the charts three straight times, a rarity in today's high-turnover market.

JOHN KNOLL invents reality -- in a Hollywood kind of way. "Eighty percent of my job is to ask the question: If this were real, what would it look like?" Knoll says. The three-time special- effects Oscar nominee's biggest competition in creating otherworldly but believable creatures often comes from himself.