As the producer of over seventy movies and TV shows, youâve all seen something made by mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer. But if you donât recognize the name, maybe youâve seen Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, C.S.I., The Amazing Race, or Cold Case. To put it simply, Bruckheimer's a big deal.As you might imagine, someone who produces so many movies and TV shows is quite busy. But a few months ago, on the London set of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Bruckheimer took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a number of questions about how the production had been going. He also addressed why they decided to shoot in 3D and the challenges of the format, how he's been enjoying Twitter (follow him here), how new Pirates director Rob Marshall got the job, how they already have ideas for Pirates 5, how does he have the time to watch over everything, and he gave us updates on Lone Ranger and the National Treasure franchise. Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview:Before going any further, if you haven't seen the great trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, I'd watch that first. As most of you already know, the new Pirates movie is about the search for the Fountain of Youth and it stars Depp, Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush, Kevin R. McNally, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, and Sam Claffin.-Like I said during my set visit video blog (watch it here), I think the filmmakers behind the Pirates franchise have taken everything that worked about the first three movies and and that's the backbone of the 4th movie. Instead of too many characters and side plots, we're following Jack Sparrow as he searches for the Fountain of Youth. Of course new characters are brought in to expand the Pirates universe, but On Stranger Tides is going to be a straight forward action adventure that should be easy to follow that's loaded with huge action and it was filmed in 3D. While I was let down by the 3rd Pirates movie, everything I learned on set makes me think this should be a great film.Here's what Bruckheimer said on set in October. For the audio, click here. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides gets released May 20, 2011. -Question: Iâm going to speak for the Twitterverse by saying I think a lot of us follow you.Jerry Bruckheimer: Oh good.How are you enjoying the set?Bruckheimer: I love it. I think itâs a lot of fun. Yeah, Iâve got a bunch of stuffâpictures. I just havenât downloaded them off the computer yet. Iâve got to start sending them outâif they allow me.Iâm sort of curious about that. How much do you have to clear through the studio? Or can you just decide, youâve done pictures of Johnny, youâve done other stuff, is it sort of like you just saying, âEff it, letâs put it out there?âBruckheimer: No no. First of all, any time you do an actor, you have to get their clearance to put anything out. Johnny (Depp), and thereâs certain actors who get photo approval. You send them through various channels. But anything I send out, I go through Ryan (Stankevitch) or somebody at the studio to see if itâs okay, because I donât want to step on something theyâre going to release at the same time. So we all work together.On a slightly less casual note, after the first three films, youâre on the verge of doing a fourth, did you stop and pause and say, âThere are certain things we have to do better and/or differently?â Or was it a sense of if it ainât broke, i.e., still profitable, donât fix it?Bruckheimer: No, I think what we did is we decided on a different direction. During the filming of three and two, Terry (Rossio) and Ted (Elliott) came up with On Stranger Tides, they found the book. And they said, âWhat an interesting way to go.â We optioned the book. Thatâs how it all began and started. We didnât look back and sayâwe just wanted to start a new chapter, and this was the new chapter. That book gave us the new chapter.The novel by Tim Powers.Bruckheimer: Yes.What sparked the decision to go digital with the filmmaking?Bruckheimer: You mean to go 3D?Yeah.Bruckheimer: I just think itâs such an immersive filmmaking; I think it makes you part of the actual filming because youâre part of the screen. It makes it closer to you. Weâre very adventurous and we decided we wanted to be the first big movieâexterior movieâto do this. Avatar was all on a stage, mostly on a stage. Weâre the first big adventure picture thatâs going to be release that is 3D and is actually using 3D cameras.Did you consider the post conversion of the process?Bruckheimer: No, it was never a consideration. Initially we had more post conversion in our budget, but once we started shooting we didnât do it, we didnât need it. Weâre very few shots that are post conversion, very few. Thereâs one sequence, the first sequence that we filmed that was on a beach that you couldnât get to by land. So everybody had to either take a helicopter in or a boat in, and we just couldnât get those big cameras on that beach. So thereâs only one small sequence that was 2D and thatâs being converted. Thatâs it.Iâve heard stories with the cameras, with the heat and humidity, sometimes acting up. And I know you guys shot in Hawaii in the jungle. Could you talk a little bit about were there any technical challenges you had to overcome with the 3-D cameras? Or have they reached the point now with the technology where they can go into the jungle now without a problem?Bruckheimer: Yeah we had problems with rain, theyâre very sensitive, the cameras. Canât rememberâwhat was the other thing that we were having trouble with, with the extreme heat? What was it?The humidity, I think.Bruckheimer: There was something with kind of a mirror in there that we had to keep changing, I guess, that we had problems with. But we overcame, it wasnât terrible. Not like we lost a day of filing; we might lose 15 minutes, 20 minutes, changing something. Because anytime you have a technical problem with the cameras, you have to change two lenses. Itâs not like you just switch one lens and you fix it; there are two things that have to be fixed. So the converge again, if one camera goes out, you have to re-converge. You have to sit there and figure out how to recalibrate the two cameras, so that takes a few minutes. But nothing terrible.In terms of the continuity with the characters, other than Captain Jack, was there any discussion about which characters would return or wouldnât return? Or did any big decisions change about some of the supporting characters that you would bring back for this one?Bruckheimer: Yeah, weâre constantly going back and forth on certain characters to bring back or not. But we tried to streamline the story a little bit, make it a little simpler and not have as many characters to follow. That was one of the things we found in editing of Three, that we had so many stories to tie up, and thatâs why the picture got a little longer than we would have liked it to have been had we not added so many characters. So we learned from that and said, âHey, letâs not throw as many characters in, and make it a little easier on ourselves.âBut for example, was Captain Barbossa always going to be part of the new story?Bruckheimer: You know the way Terry works, and Ted and us is that we start writing out 3x5 cards on things we would like to see in the movie and we put it up on a big board. And Barbossa was always one that came up on the board, because heâs such a great actor, Geoffrey (Rush) and we wanted to bring him back. Heâs so much fun to watch. The decisions are made like that.You have a new director on this chapter. Could you talk about the differences in possibly the way both of themâGoreâ¦Bruckheimer: Completely different backgrounds. Gore (Verbinski) came out of visual effects and commercials. Rob (Marshall) was a dancer and a choreographer and then a stage director and then film choreogrâfilm director, I donât know if he ever choreographed films. Did he ever choreograph films? Rob? Or did he go right through to directing?Michael (Unit Publicist): He went right to directing, because the first film he directed was Annie, which was a musical for TV.Bruckheimer: Okay. So, different backgrounds, there were certainly differences.If I could follow up on that, there were rumors about other directors getting the gig. What was it? Were you involvedâobviously you must have been involved in the decision with Rob. Did he come in?Bruckheimer: I just thought he was a premiere filmmaker and I loved his background. Every film he made I thought was unique and different. Chicago was nominated and won a bunch of academy awards. Heâs a premiere director, we checked him out. Actors love him. They love him; theyâd do anything for him. So thatâs a great thing when you have actors who want to work with a director. Usually they have tales to tell out of school about directors they donât like working with. But to the âT,â everybody we talked to, all the women, some of those women, when you have a whole group of women on a film it can get kind of interesting. He handled them all beautifully and he loved them. And then Johnny also, he checked Rob out, liked his films, and also found out that actors love working with him. Itâs the same case. With Penelope (Cruz) wanting to work with him that was much easier to sell her to do the movie, itâs not a kind of movie sheâs ever done before. Because Rob was directing it made it much easier to get her involved because sheâd just done a movie with him.These films have gotten successively bigger and bigger and bigger in terms of scope and sweep and visual effects. When youâre working on number four, do you stop and look in the mirror and go, âBruckheimer you beautiful bastard, how are you going to top yourself?â How do you psych yourself up?Bruckheimer: Itâs all about story. Itâs all about your story and your characters. This one, even though it was reported that Disney cut the budget and we were being more (inaudible) about it, itâs still a huge movie, itâs still really big.Saying that in a huge artificial stockroom, I can certainly find that remarkably plausible.Bruckheimer: Well, if youâd been with us a week ago, we were in Greenwich and you say 465 extras that had to be dressed and fed and make up and wardrobe every morning, they were there for what, a week?Michael: Two weeks.Bruckheimer: Two weeks of a lot of people, so weâre still making a big, epic movie.At what point do you feel like Napoleon? At what point does it feel like mobilizing and army? You have so many human beings.Bruckheimer: Every movie is an army. Even small movies. Just moving around, if you have a lot of locations. Itâs a real effort, itâs a real organizational feat that our line producers and ADs and location people have to deal with.Can you talk about what your role is in terms of shaping the story? Obviously Ted and Terry got the book and you talked about the index cards, but as a producer, how do youâ¦Bruckheimer: Iâm in there. In other words, when the cards go up, Iâll have input in that. When they start formulating the thing, theyâll pitch it to me, Iâll be involved, weâll throw around ideas. So Iâm in the room, Iâm not in the room all the time. Some people from my company are, but thereâs always input, all the way through the process, in everything.Does Johnny have input into the stories?Bruckheimer: Absolutely.In what way?Bruckheimer: Weâll come up with a form of a verbal outline where weâll pitch the story and weâll bring him in on it. And heâll say, âNo, Iâm not sure about this. Why donât we do this?â He kind of came up with the Phillip character, whoâs in the movie. It was really his idea to make him a mercenaryânot a mercenary, a missionary. So he comes up with interesting ideas that we use. Terry told us that Johnny was actually very involved in shaping the story of this last one.Bruckheimer: He was.And that as you said with Phillip. Is it sort of weird? How often do you have the big star coming in and actually giving that many good notes? Because everybody has talked about how good the script is on this one.Bruckheimer: When you have smart actors, I think itâs really in your best interest to bring them in and work with them if they have good ideas, and most of them do. Iâve been very fortunate, most of the actors weâve worked with have really terrific ideas and help you. The wonderful thing about it is that Terry and Ted get all the credit, which is great for them, when good ideas get floated around. Theyâre very generous in accepting other peopleâs ideas, because they know their name goes on the screenplay. And they take Johnnyâs ideas if theyâre good, and discuss them.How much is this a sort of fresh start for the Pirates franchise? Obviously youâve got a new team involved and is it going to sort of spill off into a new trilogy?Bruckheimer: We donât know if it will be a trilogy, but weâre already throwing around ideas for [Pirates] 5 and have a good sense of what weâre thinking of doing. So, it certainly started at least one Pirates, hopefully more. It doesnât take a great deal of imagination to grasp the surface large challengesâlocation, large name actors. What is a challenge that you face on a regular basis that people donât quite get? Whatâs the unexpected problematic difficulty that always surprises you?Bruckheimer: Stuff happens, you know. Itâs what happens. We had rain, we had weather problems. Things you donât expect happened. We have a pregnant actress. That happened. Those are issues youâve got to deal with, and you roll with it. We have enough really smart people that can solve problems. You surround yourself with enough really smart people, youâll be fine.You mentioned before the photos on Twitter. Take Twitter out of this. Iâve seen your photos on set, that display at Comic-Con. When are you going to release those? I really think those are great.Bruckheimer: Sure. Michael, when are we going to do that?Michael: Good question. Any time now. There will be a lot of Jerryâs photos in a book called âThe Art of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.â But one of these days, a full book with all new photos, great idea.In your copious free time.Bruckheimer: Yes.This book has a third in London, a third at sea, a third in the jungle. Can you talk about what action set piece for each of those fans can look forward to? Or is there one that youâre really looking forward to?Bruckheimer: God, thereâs so many. It is chockâthereâs a wonderful action set piece in here. Thereâs just getting ready to film the beginning of an action set piece that takes place in the streets of Greenwich on a carriage ride. Thereâs a mermaid attack, which is spectacular. Thereâs the fountain of youth at the end of the picture thatâs a big action sequence. Thereâs quite a bit for the kids to feast their eyes on and have fun with.Whatâs some of the new ground that this one is covering that youâre really excited with?Bruckheimer: Just bringing Johnny to London, I think is so much fun. The fish out of water aspect with the pirate, the aristocracy, meeting with the king. Weâre just having so much fun with that right now. So thatâs a blast.Are you able to read a book or watch a documentary for pleasure, or is it all just grist for the mill? Do you find yourself going, âOooh, yes, that idea. Oh, Ponce de Leon, yes!â Are you able to turn it off?Bruckheimer: Yeah, when I play ice hockey. Thatâs about it, which I havenât been. Fortunately my baggage has gotten lighter since the iPad came out. Theyâre sending me all the scripts on an iPad, so it makes it much easier than shlepping all the TV scripts, but I still read all our television scripts. In between set ups, Iâm usually reading a television script while weâre getting ready. And then watching all the episodes. I usually watch them on a treadmill in the morning. Before I get here, I usually watch one or two episodes.This brings me to a good question. Whatâs the day-to-day life of Jerry Bruckheimer? When do you get up and when does the work start and when does it end?Bruckheimer: Unfortunately here it ends around three in the morning because thatâs around seven in LA, so it ends then. Iâm up by seven or eight and start watching the TV shows. Get here after I get a good work out. Spend the rest of the day here, then meet with the director. Weâre working on the trailer right now, so I meet with the trailer people after we finish filming and work on the teaser. Then go out to dinner then get on the phone, finish phone calls back in LA.Iâm curious with the TV shows, when you watch an episode, have you reached a point now where thereâs a lot of edits that you need to make?Bruckheimer: Itâs gone through so many people by the time it gets to me. It goes through our staff, the staff on the TV show, it goes through Warner Bros. and then it goes through the network. I usually get a copy of it right at the same time the network does. So by then itâs gone through so many different hopefully great minds, so thereâs not much. But thereâs still notes I give when thereâs things I donât quite understand or think we can do better.I believe youâre involved with The Lone Ranger?Bruckheimer: Yes.I wanted to know how thatâs going right now and what else is bubbling up to the surface for you?Bruckheimer: Lone Ranger I think is hopefully going to be pretty soon. And National Treasure, weâre working on that. Lone Ranger is going quite well, I just had a meeting with Johnny recently, it went fantastic. So itâs going good. That oneâs getting pretty exciting. Weâre excited about another big movie with the same team that brought you Piratesâthe first three, anyway.Iâm curious about National Treasure. Do you think thatâs going to move forward pretty soon? It seems a lot of people want a third one.Bruckheimer: It all depends on us getting a screenplay, thatâs what itâs all about. Weâre in the process of finishing up a first draft that weâve been working on for a while, itâs really more than a first draft, but they havenât given it to me yet, so weâll wait and see when we get it.-For more Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides set visit coverage:Johnny Depp On Set InterviewScreenwriter Terry Rossio On Set InterviewPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Set Visit Video Blog
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer On Set Interview PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4: ON STRANGER TIDES; Updates on LONE RANGER and More
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer On Set Interview PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4: ON STRANGER TIDES; Plus Updates on LONE RANGER and NATIONAL TREASURE