Depp will be returning as Captain Jack Sparrow
for Pirates of the Caribbean 4,
but first, he’ll be reteaming with director Tim Burton
to play the Mad Hatter
in the motion-capture animated
Alice in Wonderland
and playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger.
The rumored date for POTC 4 is now 2012!

Terry Rossio, co-screenwriter of the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films,
has debunked the various rumors that are going around
about Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

They ranged from Johnny Depp getting $56 million for the fourth movie
to Tim Burton directing to Sacha Baron Cohen and Russell Brand co-starring.

Rossio writes:
For the record, none of the recent Pirates 4 rumors have any truth,
including the so-called record 50 million dollar payday for Depp.

Some pretty funny stuff, though. Sacha Cohen? Tim Burton?
Studios are way too protective of their franchises for that sort of thing.

The only thing that has been officially announced so far
is that Johnny Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth film.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
turned out the biggest sales performance of the three sequels
that stormed the box office during the summer, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The third installment in the Disney franchise
easily topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert DVD sales chart
in its first week in stores, selling more than twice as many copies
as Spider-Man 3 and significantly more DVDs than Shrek the Third
in their respective first weeks.