Happy Birthday, Lily-Rose!

Today is Lily-Rose's 8th birthday.

Happy birthday, little one!

Opinions on "At World's End"

By now, many people have seen the new Pirates movie, so let's hear your thoughts. What did you think of the movie? Was it everything you expected? More? Less?

WARNING: Comments on this post will almost definitely contain SPOILERS, so don't read the comments if you haven't seen the movie yet. :)

Japan Photos

I've uploaded all the photos from the Japan arrival, photocall and premiere into a gallery on the main site. Click here to find them all, or you can find them through the Events page.

Japan Premiere & Photocall

I've stored some photos from the Japanese premiere and photocall for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in my photobucket for now. Click here to view all of them, but here's a little teaser. Thanks, Julie!

Johnny in Japan

Johnny Depp has arrived at the airport in Japan for the Japanese premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End scheduled for May 23.

Click here for more photos from the arrival.

Spoilers or Not?

With the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End coming later this week, the internet has been flooded with clips, interviews, movie stills and early reviews of the film. Someone on the message board posed an interesting question: Do you read the spoilers before a film comes out, or do you try to avoid them?

For me, that's easy -- I try to avoid them. I've obviously seen the photos and official clips that have been released, but I haven't read any of the early reviews or plot spoilers. I like to see a movie myself and get my own opinion of it before I read everyone else's.

That's obviously not foolproof, though. I tried really hard to avoid spoilers back when From Hell was about to come out, but I accidentally read a yahoogroups message that gave away the ending. That was depressing. LOL! The same kind of thing happened with Secret Window, but it wasn't quite as blatant. A hint of something mentioned in a group post just clicked for some reason, and I figured out the twist before I ever saw the movie. I still enjoyed both films immensely, I just wonder how much better it would have been the first time around to actually be surprised, you know? The hazards of running a fan site, I guess.

So, what about you? Do you read spoilers or try to avoid them?

Thoughts from the Premiere

Yesterday's premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was a interesting ride, not only for the thousands who actually attended, but also for the tens of thousands more who followed the event on the internet.

In watching the event progress through the reports at the message board, I think it became a learning experience for us all. While the day started with excitement and anticipation, it ended in disappointment, bitterness, and in the heat of high emotions, even calls to boycott the film when it is released in theatres.

From a fan's perspective, it certainly would be disappointing to travel a long way, spend a lot of money, stand in line from the early hours of the morning, and get nothing more in return than a glimpse of the person you came to see get rushed past you in a swarm of security people. But as fans, I think we all realize (especially in the calmer light of day) that it would be impossible for one person to meet and talk to each and every fan who shows up at events like this. Inevitably, someone is going to be disappointed, and that's really no one's fault.

Unfortunately, a few of the people disappointed in this particular instance were being followed by many thousands more on the internet, and their tale and perspective gave the event a bit of a black eye. It was the luck of the draw, obviously, and it could well have worked out the other way -- they could have been one of the lucky ones who did get their moment, and the mood for the rest of us watching from afar would have been dramatically different.

For fans, I think the lesson is that showing up at a public appearance doesn't guarantee anything. Hopes for autographs or a few moments of a star's time need to be tempered with the reality that it just doesn't always happen. It's wonderful when it does, it sucks when it doesn't, and it's really just luck either way.

At the same time, though, I think it's also a learning experience for the movie studios who host these big events. Up to about 10 years ago, maybe even as recently as 5, premieres were designed for media coverage. Fans still showed up, but these events were primarily intended to spread the word about a film through the glitz and glamour of the stars on the red carpet along with the first public screening.

The times may not be a-changin', but the definition of "media coverage" definitely is. Instant communication, blogs, message boards, e-mail groups, organized fan sites -- all of these things have entered the media realm and are a powerful force. Many people look to these sources before or even instead of more traditional sources like newspapers and television. And since these outlets are much more difficult to control, perhaps the time has come for the studios to realize that the fans who attend these events are becoming equally important in the promotion of a film or a cause as the traditional news outlets who cover them.

There's a happy medium in there somewhere. Fans and promoters just need to be willing to meet each other halfway.

AWE Premiere Photos

I've added a new gallery to the Events Photos page for last night's premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at Disneyland. Enjoy!

From the Premiere

If you were following the premiere threads on the message board yesterday, you know there were some tales of disappointment at Disneyland last night. It's obviously impossible to get to everyone, though, and it's difficult from a single vantage point to know how things were going for the rest of the crowd.

It seems fans near the front of the red carpet fared a little better than the ones toward the end. This report came from Poune at the message board:

Weeeell.. When he came over I gave him my P album to sign, and he said:

Oooh, you've got the P album!

And I answered in French: Yes, and I came frome Quebec by bus to see you...

He said that he was honored or something, I can't remember, I was so excited I was shaking...

I asked him for a picture with him and he said "oui, bien sur" but Gerry didn't want to... But I did get at least a smile from Johnny!

He was really looking great tonight!

We had a little chat with Orlando, he's so sweet, we got to meet almost all the Pirates cast like Jack Davenport, Lee Arenberg (he wrote Ello Poppet to me), Bill Nighy, I have a picture with Chow Yun Fat (he's amazing)

I just thought everybody had a good time.

Congratulations, Poune! Hopefully we'll see more like this one come through in the next day or two. But in the meantime, here are a few more pics from the premiere.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Disneyland AWE Premiere

Today's the day for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at Disneyland in California.

Some of the girls from the Depp Impact message board are attending, so you can click here to find the latest reports live from the park. Special thanks to Ash for working as the liaison for the board!

EDIT: Had to start a new thread for reports because the first one got so large. Click here for the new link if you haven't found it already.

IESB also promises video interviews and images live from the red carpet once the festivities begin, so you can check there throughout the night, too. The park is scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. Eastern) for the premiere, so things should start picking up after that.

Wishing all the fans attending the best of luck and a wonderful time!

EDIT: Johnny has arrived at the premiere:

Rolling Stone May 31 Issue

Here's a peek at the cover for the May 31, 2007 issue of Rolling Stone magazine:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Donleavy Wants Depp

The Wall Street Journal offers an interview with author J.P. Donleavy, one of Johnny Depp's professed literary idols. According to the article, the admiration is mutual:

[Donleavy] hopes that Mr. Depp, whose breeding and physical elegance he greatly admires, will play Sebastian Dangerfield in a film adaptation of "The Ginger Man" that has been in discussion for some time.

Keith Richards in Toyland

Ktvu.com reports the collectible manufacturer NECA has obtained exclusive rights to produce an action figure of Teague Sparrow, portrayed by Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The figure will be available in both 7-inch and 18-inch form this summer.

Photos of the action figure are not yet available due to Disney's tight security over images of Teague prior to the film's release.

Speaking of Richards, SFGate reports he earned a new nickname from Johnny Depp during his stint on the Pirates set:

"The anticipation was mad," says Depp. "Everyone was like, 'Is he going to do it? Is he going to do it?' And then whammo, he arrived at eight o'clock in the morning, totally prepped and ready to go. Obviously, Keith Richards — the guy invented charisma. But what I didn't expect was he was going to be such a great actor. I started calling him 'Two-Take Richards'. It was like this gunslinger arrived in town, charmed all the women and impressed all the men, and then split."

Johnny's Angels

You may have noticed the new banner at the bottom of the page for "Johnny's Angels", so I just wanted to take a minute and explain what it is.

Donna G., one of the ladies from the DeppFansOver30 yahoogroup, put this together with the folks at Children's Hospice, since it's one of Johnny's favorite charities. The GoodSearch search engine (which is powered by Yahoo) is FREE to use, but a penny for every search is donated to the charity.

You can bookmark the GoodSearch page, but there's also a way to add it as the default search engine on your browser, if you want to do that. Just check that page for more details.

Just wanted to let you know so you can check it out. Hopefully it will add up to a sizeable contribution from Johnny's fans.

New Interview Clips

I've added a slew of downloadable video files to the Video page of the site featuring interviews with Johnny Depp as he promotes Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

The clips include:

• Access Hollywood
• Associated Press
• E! News
• Entertainment Tonight
• Extra
• FOX News
• Disney Movie Surfers
• Reuters

Enjoy!

'Good Morning America' Video

I've uploaded the interview from this morning's Good Morning, America show on the main site. You should be able to download it by right-clicking and "save target as" with this link, but if not, you can find it on the site's Video Clips page. Thanks to Kimberly for the clip!

ABC News also offers a printable version of this interview.

Early Opening for 'Pirates 3'

According to Variety, the US release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has been moved up a few hours and will now open in theatres beginning at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 24th.

Disney confirmed the move Monday, a day after Sony's "Spider-Man 3" demolished the domestic opening weekend record in $151 million in North America -- $15 million more than last July's $135.6 million launch for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

As is often the case with tentpoles, the new Spidey record included early showings -- in this case, screenings of at midnight and 3 a.m. on opening day, last Friday.

Disney said it began asking exhibitors last week to schedule the first screenings of "At World's End" for 8 p.m. on May 24 -- a Thursday that ushers in Memorial Day weekend. With anticipation sky-high for the third "Pirates," Disney could conceivably regain bragging rights for the top opening frame.

Interview in UK Magazine

Johnny Depp discusses Lily-Rose's illness in the May 7th issue of Woman's Own magazine in the UK:

"I was in London filming Sweeney Todd when she was rushed into hospital, so I just dropped everything to be with her. At first they didn't know what it was. Then it turned out to be e-coli - probably brought on by something she ate. All we could think about was losing her, so it was a huge relief when she came through. The medical staff were great, and we were very grateful that they helped her pull through."

The interviewer says it sounds as if it was an awful time -

"Yes, it was horrible. There was no guarantee she would survive. We were very, very relieved. We don't want to go through that again. Lily-Rose is wonderful, a little angel, and her brother Jack's great. They put everything into perspective. I love to see them wake up in the morning, wide-eyed and surprised. If I'm working and don't see them for a couple of days, it really gets to me. I could just sit and do nothing and watch them grow."

There is more to the article, including a Quickfire section in which Johnny says he 'used to be a pen salesman', doesn't like spiders, says he's shy, leaves premieres early and would love to make a hit album. A full-color photo accompanies the article.

Thanks to Kimberly for the info!

Press Release for Disneyland Premiere

From BUSINESS WIRE
May 04, 2007 01:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time

World Premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, to Benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation

WHO:

From the film - Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Chow Yun Fat, Naomie Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy, Keith Richards, Kevin McNally, Jonathan Pryce, David Schofield, Lee Arenberg, Martin Klebba, David Bailie, Vanessa Branch, Jack Davenport, Greg Ellis, Reggie Lee, Peter Donald Badalamenti II, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski.

Other guests include - Laila Ali, Jon Voight, Rhianna, Adrieene Bailon, Sabrina Bryan, Cheryl Burke, Ricardo Chavira, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Bill Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus, Janice Dickinson, Joey Fatone, Leeza Gibbons, Carrie Ann Inaba, Kyle Massey, Alyson & AJ Michalka, Apolo Anton Ono, Emma Roberts, Brena Song, Dylan & Cole Sprouse, Kiely Williams, Dave Winfield, Amanda Bynes, Tommy Lee, Pat Riley, Tony Scott ... and more!

WHAT: World Premiere of Walt Disney Pictures', in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Films, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

WHEN: Saturday, May 19, 2007
Press Arrivals: 3:00 PM
Talent Arrivals: 4:30 PM

WHERE: DISNEYLAND
Red Carpet on Main Street USA
1313 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 28027

The Walt Disney Company is helping to make wishes come true for children all over the world by donating proceeds from the highly anticipated World Premiere of Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films' "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America and Make-A-Wish® International.

This gala celebration for the third installment of the enormously popular "Pirates" saga will raise $3 million for Make-A-Wish efforts, through ticket sales, with Disney providing an initial donation in excess of $1 million to the charities, in addition to underwriting the entire cost of the Premiere (so that 100 percent of the ticket income will benefit both Make-A-Wish organizations). This is the first time that the public has been invited to participate in a "Pirates" Premiere.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America and Make-A-Wish International are dedicated to granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions in order to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END is rated PG-13 and opens domestically May 25, 2007.

'Pirates' Video Clips at IGN

IGN.com has downloadable videos for the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on its site in both Quicktime and Windows Media formats. The clips include the movie trailer, the "Characters" featurette and the "Pirate Lords" featurette.

MTV Offers 'Pirates' in Japan

MTV UK is hosting a contest to win a trip for two to the Japanese premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End later this month. Contest entries are limited to people 18 and older, and the deadline for entries is May 13th.

'Access Hollywood' Video

Access Hollywood has a video clip of an interview with Johnny Depp on Pirates, Barbies and Keith Richards. He also says that Tim Burton has "outdone himself" with the upcoming Sweeney Todd film, so that's something to look forward to. Thanks to Kimberly for the link!

Lee Arenberg Talks 'Pirates' 3

JewReview offers an interview with Lee Arenberg, the actor who portrays the pirate Pintel in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In it, Arenberg discusses working with Johnny Depp:

"Johnny Depp is one of the greatest actors for his talent, his intellect, his choices, and also just his look – he’s got the ‘ace face’ to back it up; if you’re going to call bullshit, you’re a good looking man. He always says the fans are the boss of him, and he works for the fans; I think it was really interesting to me. One of the things about him that was so magical about him on the first one, Curse of the Black Pearl, was here you have one of the greatest actors – although corky and probably many of the audience hadn’t caught many of his pictures, or if they saw him, he was under scissorhand make-up or a pretty elaborate make-up job; to see him there, just nailing a character - in a way, very few actors in film actors ever have. There’s very few actors nominated for Oscars for a comedy; it’s Chaplin-esque. It’s legendary, it’s like Bob Beamon jumping three feet farther than anyone. The studio didn’t want to do it because they were afraid of the sexuality of his character, they didn’t know what to make of the teeth thing; but he sees three steps ahead. The romantic pirate is like a rock and roll star, so I’m going to base my character on my favorite rock and roll star, Keith Richards – and put in a little Pepe Le Peu for the kids."

He also discusses the experience of having Johnny Depp and Keith Richards together on the set:

"What’s interesting is the dynamic – how we act around Johnny is how Johnny acts around Keith. It was more about him hanging out outside Keith’s trailer like the rest of us poor shmucks – it was pretty neat. That’s the great thing, Johnny’s layer of humanity; he sees himself as a regular dude with a superstar gig. I don’t think he buys into his own bullshit either really; he’s got a beautiful family, and it’s given him a different perspective. When his daughter came to the set on the first one, he was worried she’d be scared of the pirates, but she loved them – the nastier, the better and that’s what was another good kudo for the project."

Correction on 'Sweeney' Production

According to an update from Variety, the filming of Sweeney Todd will not wrap until May 11th. This is a correction from their originally posted date of April 20th. Thanks to Guy for the info!

MTV Movie Awards Nominations

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has received several nominations for the MTV Movie Awards this year. The nominations include:

• Best Movie
• Best Performance (Johnny Depp)
• Best Performance (Keira Knightley)
• Best Villain (Bill Nighy)

You can vote for your favorites now at the MTV web site. The awards will be broadcast live June 3 on MTV.

Rush Talks 'Pirates' and Depp

YourMovies.com.au offers an interview with Geoffrey Rush in which he discusses the third Pirates of the Caribbean film and working with Johnny Depp:

"Someone like Johnny is a great team leader..." he says. "It's great not to have a diva. It's great to have someone who's very laid-back, very playful... he's probably the only person who dares to ad-lib. A lot of what he throws in makes it into the final mix. Jack Sparrow is some crazy part of Johnny's brain.

"And Johnny Depp, we've been together for four-and-a-half years now on these films; he's one of the great character actors in a leading man's body who constantly surprises himself and his audience with his capabilities and imagination."

He'll Never Get Bored of Jack

Now Magazine offers a snippet of an interview with Johnny Depp from "Top of the Pops" magazine in which Johnny says he could never get bored of Jack Sparrow.

"I'll never get bored of Captain Jack, he is so much fun," he says. "If they wanted to do Pirates 7, why not? There are new layers to Jack and situations that he can't just talk his way out of, so it would be good to keep exploring the character."

The one drawback he admits is the process of creating Jack's golden smile:

"They're bonded on to my own choppers!" he says. "They make the surface of my teeth kind of rough then use hot glue and laser the false teeth on. The process of taking them off can be quite ugly. Sometimes they just shoot off and other times you have to address the issue more intensely with yanking."

"Top of the Pops" is a BBC Magazine published in the UK.