Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
15 Aug 2003 ● English ● 2 hrs 23 mins
Embedded with quirky comedy and flamboyant action, this swash-buckling tale is the first instalment of a series of movies that follow the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, a savvy pirate with a wicked sense of humour.
In this story, 'Captain' Jack Sparrow must team up with Will Turner, a resourceful blacksmith, on a dangerous quest in search of Elizabeth Swann, the gorgeous the author of the governor. Elizabeth is also the love of Will's life, has been kidnapped by the feared Captain Barbossa.
Little do they know, but the fierce and clever Barbossa has been cursed. He, along with his large crew, are under an ancient curse, doomed for eternity to neither live, nor die. That is, unless a blood sacrifice is made. How will Jack Sparrow, Will Turner and Elizabeth escape the cursed Captain Barbosa and his crew?
Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley
Crew: Gore Verbinski (Director), Dariusz Wolski (Director of Photography), Klaus Badelt (Music Director)
Rating: U/A (India), PG13 (Singapore), 12 (Germany)
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Release Dates: 15 Aug 2003 (India)
Tagline: Prepare to be blown out of the water.
Did you know? Jack (the monkey) is seen "smiling" when Barbossa thanks him specifically after he returns the Aztec coin to him after Jack Sparrow chases him. In the special features on the DVD it is revealed that the monkey did this purely by chance and it was not planned out in any way. Read More
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as Jack Sparrow
as Elizabeth Swann
Supporting Actor
as Lt. Gillette
Supporting Actor
as Barbossa
as Norrington
as Governor Weatherby Swann
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Supporting Actor
as Young Elizabeth
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
as Will Turner
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Direction
Director
Second Unit Director
First Assistant Director
Second Assistant Director
Production
Producer
Production Company
Executive Producer
Distribution
Distributor
Music
Music Director
Composer
Playback Singer
Music Editor
Sound
Sound Designer
Foley Editor
Sound Re-recording Mixer
Sound Effects Editor
Boom Operator
Animation
Animator
Art
Production Designer
Art Director
Prop Master
Set Designer
Set Decorator
Set Dresser
Casting
Casting Director
Costume and Wardrobe
Costume Designer
Editorial
Negative Cutter
Marketing and Public Relations
Graphic Designer
Post Production
Post Production Supervisor
Special Effects
Special Effects Coordinator
Special Effects Technician
Special Effects Studio
Film Type:
Feature
Language:
English
Colour Info:
Color
Sound Mix:
DTS, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
Camera:
Panaflex Platinum
Frame Rate:
24 fps
Aspect Ratio:
2.39:1 (Scope)
Stereoscopy:
No
Taglines:
Prepare to be blown out of the water.
Over 3000 Islands of Paradise -- For Some it's A Blessing -- For Others... It's A Curse.
Over 3000 Islands of Paradise -- For Some it's A Blessing -- For Others... It's A Curse.
Movie Connection(s):
Reference: The Last of the Mohicans (English)
Referenced in: The Lone Ranger (English)
Referenced in: Paddington (English)
Referenced in: The Lone Ranger (English)
Referenced in: Paddington (English)
Filming Locations:
Los Angeles, California, USA
Samana, Dominican Republic
Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Kingstown, St Vincent, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Dominica
Long Beach, California, USA
Little Europe, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
Marineland of the Pacific - 6610 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA
Mediterranean Square, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
Mexican Street, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
Walt Disney Studios, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA
Samana, Dominican Republic
Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Kingstown, St Vincent, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Dominica
Long Beach, California, USA
Little Europe, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
Marineland of the Pacific - 6610 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA
Mediterranean Square, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
Mexican Street, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
Walt Disney Studios, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA
Goofs:
Character Error
At the end of the film Jack is about to be executed. The court crier reads aloud the charges against Jack, and then concludes that he is to be "hung" by the neck until dead. Proper English dictates that he would be "hanged" by the neck until dead.
Character Error
When Jack and Barbossa are fighting in the cave, Barbossa seems surprised that Jack is also cursed. Being a skeleton in the moonlight, he rolls a cursed coin between his fingers and says that he couldn't resist, hinting at an earlier scene, where he took a few coins from the chest, threw them back, but secretly kept one. Now, Barbossa saw him take the coins, but did not notice that he kept one. However, even if he hadn't kept it, he would still be cursed, since he didn't return the coins together with his blood. Barbossa, being well aware of the rules of the curse, would be fully aware of this and shouldn't be surprised that Jack is cursed.
Revealing Mistakes
When Jack is to be hanged and the man is reading the list of Jack's offenses, a female extra in a red-topped dress is seen mouthing the words along with the man.
Revealing Mistakes
When Norrington arrives on the HMS Dauntless to fight the cursed pirates, some of the naval personal are fighting no one because the CGI skeletons weren't put in.
Revealing Mistakes
When Pintel and Ragetti are rowing (dressed as females) towards the Dauntless, Ragetti knocks Pintel's umbrella away. When Ragetti threw his away, he turned into a skeleton progressively, as the moonlight fell on him (meaning that while the umbrella's shade was on half his face, only the exposed half was skeletal.) However, Pintel stays entirely human until the umbrella is completely out of his hands, and then he turns into a skeleton in one frame.
Revealing Mistakes
After Will And Jack commandeer the Interceptor, the ship is viewed from above, sailing on a beam reach (a point of sail in which the boat is at 90 degrees to the wind). When Jack knocks Will off the ship with the boom, he jibes the boat, causing the sail to shift positions suddenly. In order to do this from the previous position, he would have had to turn the ship almost completely around. This would have taken well over a minute. Jack did this in less that three seconds. The sail is also filled to the wrong side while it sweeps Will off the deck.
Factual Mistake
Elizabeth Swann's maid fills a bed warmer with red-hot coals and then places the warmer at the feet of Elizabeth, who is lying in bed. That's not the way bed warmers were used. They held warm, not red-hot, coals, and were placed in bed before one turned in and removed before the sleeper lay down. If used as shown in the movie, they would have barbecued one's feet.
Factual Mistake
When Jack and Will walk underwater towards the ship they intend to steal, they are holding an upturned rowing boat over their heads to trap air, allowing them to breath. This would be impossible in real life, since not only is the boat made of wood (which floats), but due to the upthrust of the trapped air, Jack and Will would need to weigh several tons between them to keep the boat down.
Errors in Geography
Port Royal, Jamaica, is built on a low spit of sand south of Kingston Harbor, nowhere more than about ten feet above sea level. The movie set has it built atop hundred-foot basaltic cliffs.
Errors in Geography
The Royal Navy did not station any 100 gun ships of the Line in the Caribbean. The ships were simply too large and deep drafted to be of much use in those waters. The English bases in the area were incapable of supporting ships that size. And the Royal Navy only had six such ships world-wide at the time of the film.
Crew/Equipment Visible
Just as Jack says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs," to the very left edge of the screen over Jack's shoulder is a grip crew member with a tan cowboy hat, white short sleeve tee shirt and sunglasses, just standing there looking out to sea.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When the Commodore and Jack are discussing how to attack the cave and the Pearl, the movie pans out to show the two small boats. The boat that has Jack and the Commodore in it, if you look to the right in the water you can view a green diver's fin that comes out of the water.
Continuity
Captain Barbossa states that the pirates cannot feel anything on their skin since the curse was put upon them. However, in the beginning the Pirate Ragetti can feel the coals that Elizabeth drops on him claiming that they're "Hot Hot". If what Barbossa says is true, the coals shouldn't have affected Ragetti.
Continuity
When Barbossa is chasing the Interceptor, as he is shouting commands, in one shot his teeth are perfectly white, while in the rest of the movie they are decayed.
Continuity
When he first shows up in the movie bringing the sword to Governor Swann, Will Turner is almost clean shaven (just a trace of a little mustache). His next scene, at the blacksmith shop - which in the movie happens at the same day, maybe an hour later - Will has a little goatee and almost full mustache.
Audio/Video Mismatch
When Jack tears the skirt of Elizabeth's dress off underwater, the loud ripping noise is heard of dry fabric being torn.
Audio/Video Mismatch
When Will draws his sword on the Interceptor and tells Jack that his father wasn't a pirate, the sword makes a metallic scraping noise, despite being tucked in his belt without a sheath of any kind.
Audio/Video Mismatch
At Commodore Norrington's promotion ceremony, the troops are given the command "right about face", which they proceed to execute. As the camera changes angles they have not completed the command, but you never hear the sound of their feet completing the last step of the maneuver.
Miscellaneous
Barbossa is seen holding a Granny Smith apple, throughout the movie. Granny Smiths originated in Australia in 1868, around a hundred and fifty years after the events of the film.
Miscellaneous
"Bob's your uncle" the British catch phrase, meaning all will be well or all will be taken care of is thought to refer to Prime Minister Lord Robert Salisbury who appointed his nephew to be Secretary of Ireland in the 1890s.
Miscellaneous
When Will Turner goes to help break out Jack Sparrow from the prison cell at the beginning of the film the bars of the cell are welded together with modern welds not invented until the 19th century.
Miscellaneous
In various close-ups of Barbossa, he can be seen wearing yellow contact lenses.
At the end of the film Jack is about to be executed. The court crier reads aloud the charges against Jack, and then concludes that he is to be "hung" by the neck until dead. Proper English dictates that he would be "hanged" by the neck until dead.
Character Error
When Jack and Barbossa are fighting in the cave, Barbossa seems surprised that Jack is also cursed. Being a skeleton in the moonlight, he rolls a cursed coin between his fingers and says that he couldn't resist, hinting at an earlier scene, where he took a few coins from the chest, threw them back, but secretly kept one. Now, Barbossa saw him take the coins, but did not notice that he kept one. However, even if he hadn't kept it, he would still be cursed, since he didn't return the coins together with his blood. Barbossa, being well aware of the rules of the curse, would be fully aware of this and shouldn't be surprised that Jack is cursed.
Revealing Mistakes
When Jack is to be hanged and the man is reading the list of Jack's offenses, a female extra in a red-topped dress is seen mouthing the words along with the man.
Revealing Mistakes
When Norrington arrives on the HMS Dauntless to fight the cursed pirates, some of the naval personal are fighting no one because the CGI skeletons weren't put in.
Revealing Mistakes
When Pintel and Ragetti are rowing (dressed as females) towards the Dauntless, Ragetti knocks Pintel's umbrella away. When Ragetti threw his away, he turned into a skeleton progressively, as the moonlight fell on him (meaning that while the umbrella's shade was on half his face, only the exposed half was skeletal.) However, Pintel stays entirely human until the umbrella is completely out of his hands, and then he turns into a skeleton in one frame.
Revealing Mistakes
After Will And Jack commandeer the Interceptor, the ship is viewed from above, sailing on a beam reach (a point of sail in which the boat is at 90 degrees to the wind). When Jack knocks Will off the ship with the boom, he jibes the boat, causing the sail to shift positions suddenly. In order to do this from the previous position, he would have had to turn the ship almost completely around. This would have taken well over a minute. Jack did this in less that three seconds. The sail is also filled to the wrong side while it sweeps Will off the deck.
Factual Mistake
Elizabeth Swann's maid fills a bed warmer with red-hot coals and then places the warmer at the feet of Elizabeth, who is lying in bed. That's not the way bed warmers were used. They held warm, not red-hot, coals, and were placed in bed before one turned in and removed before the sleeper lay down. If used as shown in the movie, they would have barbecued one's feet.
Factual Mistake
When Jack and Will walk underwater towards the ship they intend to steal, they are holding an upturned rowing boat over their heads to trap air, allowing them to breath. This would be impossible in real life, since not only is the boat made of wood (which floats), but due to the upthrust of the trapped air, Jack and Will would need to weigh several tons between them to keep the boat down.
Errors in Geography
Port Royal, Jamaica, is built on a low spit of sand south of Kingston Harbor, nowhere more than about ten feet above sea level. The movie set has it built atop hundred-foot basaltic cliffs.
Errors in Geography
The Royal Navy did not station any 100 gun ships of the Line in the Caribbean. The ships were simply too large and deep drafted to be of much use in those waters. The English bases in the area were incapable of supporting ships that size. And the Royal Navy only had six such ships world-wide at the time of the film.
Crew/Equipment Visible
Just as Jack says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs," to the very left edge of the screen over Jack's shoulder is a grip crew member with a tan cowboy hat, white short sleeve tee shirt and sunglasses, just standing there looking out to sea.
Crew/Equipment Visible
When the Commodore and Jack are discussing how to attack the cave and the Pearl, the movie pans out to show the two small boats. The boat that has Jack and the Commodore in it, if you look to the right in the water you can view a green diver's fin that comes out of the water.
Continuity
Captain Barbossa states that the pirates cannot feel anything on their skin since the curse was put upon them. However, in the beginning the Pirate Ragetti can feel the coals that Elizabeth drops on him claiming that they're "Hot Hot". If what Barbossa says is true, the coals shouldn't have affected Ragetti.
Continuity
When Barbossa is chasing the Interceptor, as he is shouting commands, in one shot his teeth are perfectly white, while in the rest of the movie they are decayed.
Continuity
When he first shows up in the movie bringing the sword to Governor Swann, Will Turner is almost clean shaven (just a trace of a little mustache). His next scene, at the blacksmith shop - which in the movie happens at the same day, maybe an hour later - Will has a little goatee and almost full mustache.
Audio/Video Mismatch
When Jack tears the skirt of Elizabeth's dress off underwater, the loud ripping noise is heard of dry fabric being torn.
Audio/Video Mismatch
When Will draws his sword on the Interceptor and tells Jack that his father wasn't a pirate, the sword makes a metallic scraping noise, despite being tucked in his belt without a sheath of any kind.
Audio/Video Mismatch
At Commodore Norrington's promotion ceremony, the troops are given the command "right about face", which they proceed to execute. As the camera changes angles they have not completed the command, but you never hear the sound of their feet completing the last step of the maneuver.
Miscellaneous
Barbossa is seen holding a Granny Smith apple, throughout the movie. Granny Smiths originated in Australia in 1868, around a hundred and fifty years after the events of the film.
Miscellaneous
"Bob's your uncle" the British catch phrase, meaning all will be well or all will be taken care of is thought to refer to Prime Minister Lord Robert Salisbury who appointed his nephew to be Secretary of Ireland in the 1890s.
Miscellaneous
When Will Turner goes to help break out Jack Sparrow from the prison cell at the beginning of the film the bars of the cell are welded together with modern welds not invented until the 19th century.
Miscellaneous
In various close-ups of Barbossa, he can be seen wearing yellow contact lenses.
Trivia:
Johnny Depp wore contact lenses which served as sunglasses so he wouldn't be squinting in the sun all the time.
Johnny Depp improvised Jack Sparrow's catch phrase, "Savvy?"
Jack (the monkey) is seen "smiling" when Barbossa thanks him specifically after he returns the Aztec coin to him after Jack Sparrow chases him. In the special features on the DVD it is revealed that the monkey did this purely by chance and it was not planned out in any way.
There is a small scab on Jack Sparrow's chin that gets bigger and bigger throughout the movie. The make up artist and Johnny Depp did it on purpose as a prank.
Clothing and smears of charcoal were used to conceal Johnny Depp's numerous tattoos. The "Jack Sparrow" tattoo on his arm in the movie is a fake, but he got a real replica after finishing the film, in honor of his son Jack.
According to the DVD commentaries, Geoffrey Rush has a theory that people watch the screen from left to right, just like when they read a book. Therefore, he tried to be in the left side of the screen as often as possible. He was particularly intent on doing this in the scenes with the monkey and Keira Knightley because he didn't think anyone would look at him otherwise.
The names of the three main characters are all linked to birds. Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann and William Turner, who was a famous ornithologist.
One of the film's last lines - "Bring me that horizon" - was conceived by Johnny Depp on the morning the scene was filmed.
The substance sprayed on William Turner after the sword fight between him and Captain Jack Sparrow is actually powdered chocolate.
During the swordfight scene between Jack Sparrow and Will Turner in the blacksmith shop. The clanging of their swords are just about in sync with the rhythm of the incidental music.
When Will wakes up after being knocked out, the morning after the Port Royal siege, he looks out into the port and in the background is a young girl sweeping a porch. The actress is Lucinda Dryzek, who plays Young Elizabeth in the beginning of the film.
HIDDEN MICKEY: The final cannon shot during the Black Pearl's siege of the town, billows into a Mickey Mouse head shape against the night sky.
According to the screenwriters' commentary on the DVD, Will Turner is the best swordsman in the film, Barbossa and Commodore Norrington are evenly matched, and Jack Sparrow is actually the worst.
The scene where Orlando Bloom impersonates Johnny Depp's performance was devised by Bloom who asked producer Jerry Bruckheimer if he could put it into the movie.
The various "eunuch" lines were improvisations by Johnny Depp.
First theatrical trailer was released with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), to capitalize on the fact that both films starred Orlando Bloom.
Robert De Niro was offered the role of Captain Jack Sparrow but he declined thinking that the movie wouldn't do well in the box office as many other pirate movies in the past. He was proved wrong and so he accepted the role of Captain Shakespeare in the movie Stardust (2007).
The title was originally just "Pirates of the Caribbean" but the name was changed in the hope that it would do well at the box office and a sequel could be made.
Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack, is portrayed as having gold teeth in the film. The gold teeth were Depp's idea, but he predicted that executives would want fewer gold teeth, and told his dentist to implant more gold teeth as a bargaining tool. Sparrow's final number of gold teeth in the film was what Depp had envisioned all along.
When filming in the cave, excessive makeup was added to the characters so they wouldn't looked washed out on film. When the crew realized how cool the makeup looked on Johnny Depp, they continued to use it on him for the rest of the movie.
In an attempt to ward off the seasickness that struck the rest of the cast and crew, Keira Knightley took a travel sickness pill... and fell asleep instead.
Originally, Johnny Depp wanted Jack Sparrow to have no nose and be afraid of silly things like pepper and the common cold. Disney rejected the idea.
Keira Knightley wore colored contact lenses like Johnny Depp's in the last scene of the movie. But since her eyes are lighter than Johnny Depp's, they had to be dark in the center and light on the outside. She complained they made her so dizzy that she threw them away the night after shooting.
When casting for the role of Will Turner, it was down to Orlando Bloom or Heath Ledger. Gore Verbinski chose Bloom because he heard he was in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and felt he would be a more bankable choice.
Keira Knightley claimed she was so sure she was going to get fired after a few days work on this film, she only packed a few things to go with her to start filming.
The East India Company (the real-life counterpart of the film franchise's East India Trading Company) really did brand pirates with a "P" but it was put on their forehead instead of their arm.
Industrial Light and Magic designers scanned turkey jerky to create the effect of decomposing skin when the pirates turn into their skeletal forms.
Keira Knightley's hair was extended because it was still short from her previous roles.
Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Tobey Maguire, Ben Peyton, Christopher Masterson and Christian Bale were all considered for the role of Will Turner.
The movie is inspired by, and takes its theme from, the popular Walt Disney theme park ride of the same name.
The island Isla de Muerta is Spanish for "island of dead". Tortuga is also Spanish, meaning "turtle".
The skull and crossed blades flag was the flag of "Calico" John Rackam, longtime lover of notorious female pirate Anne Bonny.
The movie's world premiere was located at Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in California, home to the original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, on June 28, 2003. This was the first ever movie premiere at Disneyland.
Many of the crew got seasick while filming.
Keira Knightley almost didn't make it to the audition because of a traffic jam.
Michael Keaton, Jim Carrey, and Christopher Walken were all considered for the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Stick around after the credits for an additional scene.
Johnny Depp improvised Jack Sparrow's catch phrase, "Savvy?"
Jack (the monkey) is seen "smiling" when Barbossa thanks him specifically after he returns the Aztec coin to him after Jack Sparrow chases him. In the special features on the DVD it is revealed that the monkey did this purely by chance and it was not planned out in any way.
There is a small scab on Jack Sparrow's chin that gets bigger and bigger throughout the movie. The make up artist and Johnny Depp did it on purpose as a prank.
Clothing and smears of charcoal were used to conceal Johnny Depp's numerous tattoos. The "Jack Sparrow" tattoo on his arm in the movie is a fake, but he got a real replica after finishing the film, in honor of his son Jack.
According to the DVD commentaries, Geoffrey Rush has a theory that people watch the screen from left to right, just like when they read a book. Therefore, he tried to be in the left side of the screen as often as possible. He was particularly intent on doing this in the scenes with the monkey and Keira Knightley because he didn't think anyone would look at him otherwise.
The names of the three main characters are all linked to birds. Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann and William Turner, who was a famous ornithologist.
One of the film's last lines - "Bring me that horizon" - was conceived by Johnny Depp on the morning the scene was filmed.
The substance sprayed on William Turner after the sword fight between him and Captain Jack Sparrow is actually powdered chocolate.
During the swordfight scene between Jack Sparrow and Will Turner in the blacksmith shop. The clanging of their swords are just about in sync with the rhythm of the incidental music.
When Will wakes up after being knocked out, the morning after the Port Royal siege, he looks out into the port and in the background is a young girl sweeping a porch. The actress is Lucinda Dryzek, who plays Young Elizabeth in the beginning of the film.
HIDDEN MICKEY: The final cannon shot during the Black Pearl's siege of the town, billows into a Mickey Mouse head shape against the night sky.
According to the screenwriters' commentary on the DVD, Will Turner is the best swordsman in the film, Barbossa and Commodore Norrington are evenly matched, and Jack Sparrow is actually the worst.
The scene where Orlando Bloom impersonates Johnny Depp's performance was devised by Bloom who asked producer Jerry Bruckheimer if he could put it into the movie.
The various "eunuch" lines were improvisations by Johnny Depp.
First theatrical trailer was released with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), to capitalize on the fact that both films starred Orlando Bloom.
Robert De Niro was offered the role of Captain Jack Sparrow but he declined thinking that the movie wouldn't do well in the box office as many other pirate movies in the past. He was proved wrong and so he accepted the role of Captain Shakespeare in the movie Stardust (2007).
The title was originally just "Pirates of the Caribbean" but the name was changed in the hope that it would do well at the box office and a sequel could be made.
Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack, is portrayed as having gold teeth in the film. The gold teeth were Depp's idea, but he predicted that executives would want fewer gold teeth, and told his dentist to implant more gold teeth as a bargaining tool. Sparrow's final number of gold teeth in the film was what Depp had envisioned all along.
When filming in the cave, excessive makeup was added to the characters so they wouldn't looked washed out on film. When the crew realized how cool the makeup looked on Johnny Depp, they continued to use it on him for the rest of the movie.
In an attempt to ward off the seasickness that struck the rest of the cast and crew, Keira Knightley took a travel sickness pill... and fell asleep instead.
Originally, Johnny Depp wanted Jack Sparrow to have no nose and be afraid of silly things like pepper and the common cold. Disney rejected the idea.
Keira Knightley wore colored contact lenses like Johnny Depp's in the last scene of the movie. But since her eyes are lighter than Johnny Depp's, they had to be dark in the center and light on the outside. She complained they made her so dizzy that she threw them away the night after shooting.
When casting for the role of Will Turner, it was down to Orlando Bloom or Heath Ledger. Gore Verbinski chose Bloom because he heard he was in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and felt he would be a more bankable choice.
Keira Knightley claimed she was so sure she was going to get fired after a few days work on this film, she only packed a few things to go with her to start filming.
The East India Company (the real-life counterpart of the film franchise's East India Trading Company) really did brand pirates with a "P" but it was put on their forehead instead of their arm.
Industrial Light and Magic designers scanned turkey jerky to create the effect of decomposing skin when the pirates turn into their skeletal forms.
Keira Knightley's hair was extended because it was still short from her previous roles.
Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Tobey Maguire, Ben Peyton, Christopher Masterson and Christian Bale were all considered for the role of Will Turner.
The movie is inspired by, and takes its theme from, the popular Walt Disney theme park ride of the same name.
The island Isla de Muerta is Spanish for "island of dead". Tortuga is also Spanish, meaning "turtle".
The skull and crossed blades flag was the flag of "Calico" John Rackam, longtime lover of notorious female pirate Anne Bonny.
The movie's world premiere was located at Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in California, home to the original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, on June 28, 2003. This was the first ever movie premiere at Disneyland.
Many of the crew got seasick while filming.
Keira Knightley almost didn't make it to the audition because of a traffic jam.
Michael Keaton, Jim Carrey, and Christopher Walken were all considered for the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Stick around after the credits for an additional scene.
