Pirates 4’s source

Wanna know what Pirates 4 will be about? Here’s a tip: read the book.

Remember at the end of Pirates 3, where Jack Sparrow mentions he’s going after the Fountain of Youth? Then at D23 when part 4’s title was revealed as ON STRANGER TIDES? Turns out there’s a book published in 1987 under that very title which centers on a guy who hooks up with Blackbeard and his pirates for a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. Lawsuit? Not really.

Author Tim Powers got swamped with fan mail and legal advice when the announcement was made, and he finally revealed to the folks of LA Times he’s been in cahoots with the Mouse House for a while; his book indeed IS the source for the new film.

“I was still — as far as I understood — not free to talk about it,” Powers said this week. “Then about a week ago my agent wrote and said, ‘You’re now able to say that in fact Disney did option the book.’ That happened a while ago, it’ll be three years in April.”

The author mentions the story will probably have to be fiddled with, as the main buccaneer fits more Barbossa than Jack Sparrow. “The only thing I feel certain they will hold on to is the Fountain of Youth since they telegraphed that at the end of the last movie,” he concluded.

Read the book? Pitch in!