Hoist the colours and prepare to set sail — this week we’re diving headfirst into the swashbuckling blockbuster that resurrected the pirate genre. In this episode of 100 Things We Learned From Film, John and Planty explore the behind-the-scenes chaos, casting stories, production madness, and surprising trivia behind Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

From the moment Johnny Depp turned Jack Sparrow into a swaggering rock-star pirate, to the tropical storms that battered the production and the ground breaking skeleton visual effects created by Industrial Light & Magic, this film had no right to work… and yet it became one of the biggest adventure movies of the 2000s.

We’ll uncover how a Disneyland ride became a $650 million global hit, why Disney executives thought Depp was ruining the movie, and how Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffrey Rush helped turn a risky theme-park adaptation into a cinematic phenomenon.

This episode was chosen by our Patreon supporter Jen, who backs the show for £1 a month proving that even a single doubloon can help steer the ship.

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So grab a bottle of rum, watch out for cursed Aztec gold, and join us as we try to learn 100 things from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.