Disney is in deep planning for their fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film entitled On Stranger Tides, which is scheduled for a 2011 release. Recently, the studio announced that their longstanding Chairman Dick Cook was leaving the company, and it left a lot of people bitter. News spread like wildfire throughout Hollywood and Johnny Depp wasn’t the least bit thrilled.

He vocally expressed his lack of enthusiasm about returning to do another movie, and clarified that he’s still in negotiations. Will the film go on as planned? Geoffrey Rush seems to think so.

During a one on one interview with MTV, Rush who appeared in the previous Pirates films as Captain Barbossa spoke about the status of On Stranger Tides.

“They’re waiting for the screenplay writers to put together something that’s beyond the trilogy, take it off into a new direction so that it’s fresh and hopefully really interesting for an audience, that they’re not going to just sausage-machine out something else, which wouldn’t be so good.”

He went on to say that the producers have asked him to keep his schedule open, because production on the film could start as early as the spring. Rush seems genuinely enthusiastic about this movie, but I can’t help but notice a dark cloud hovering over it. If Johnny Depp says “no go,” the franchise will be done and that’s it. Depp hasn’t officially dropped out of the film, but his sudden doubt does have fans and executives shaking in their boots.

Source: Screeen crave