• Errol Flynn. I'm working on my Australian accent, by way of England, and I think I've got it, good enough to fake a shorter, less dashing Captain Blood.
• Graham Chapman. The Brits have got us beat when it comes to classic Pirate-speak, and Yellowbeard has so much flamingly funny talk you can pick and choose, but I'll stick with my man Graham.
• Robert Shaw. He's always talking out of the side of his mouth in Swashbuckler, which makes it easy to talk like him.
• Geena Davis. She doesn't talk like pirates usually talk in Cutthroat Island. All I have to do is talk like a rough and ready lady.

World Fantasy Award–winner Powers (Three Days to Never) demonstrates a precise control of complex narratives in this reprint of his rollicking and enchanting 1987 novel. Puppeteer John Chandagnac, bound for Jamaica to recover stolen money from his uncle, becomes Jack Shandy after pirates attack his ship and force him to join their crew. Shandy's struggle to accept his new life grounds the story for readers, even as Blackbeard and vodun magicians whisk everyone away to dreamlike lands where the Fountain of Youth itself awaits. The chaotic sea battles sing, though at times key events happen so quickly that they get lost in the shuffle as Jack tries to comprehend where he's going and what's at stake. This dark fantasy tale will appeal not just to pirate fans but also to anyone who appreciates Powers's talent for blending the most unlikely elements into a brilliantly cohesive whole.

• Disney's The Princess and The Frog will be screened at the Disney Studio in Burbank, which is being opened to the public for the first time ever, from November 25th through December 13th.
• The new Muppets movie will be called The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made. Interestingly, this is the same title as a concept for a Muppet film that Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz had back in 1985. It was revived in 2000 by Frank Oz, but died in development hell. We're assuming this is the new Jason Segel Muppet project.
• Disney is remaking The Beatles' Yellow Submarine as a 3D film, complete with new motion capture and the original songs from the soundtrack, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
• Disney's Pirates 4 will be called Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and will be released in Summer 2011. Depp came out as Jack Sparrow, and asked if anyone had seen a talking frog. Well, stranger things have happened.
• We should also point out (thanks to commenter Dan) that On Stranger Tides is the name of a Pirate-related book by Tim Powers. Is Disney adapting the book for the fourth movie? Did they swipe the title? What's the connection there, because there definitely has to be a connection.
  

Are you ready for singing and dancing pirates? Rob Marshall, the director of the Academy Award-winning Chicago and the upcoming musical Nine, is "on the verge" of helming the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, according to Variety. If all goes well, Johnny Depp will return as Jack Sparrow and production will start next year.

Of course, I was only joking about the "singing and dancing," since there's no indication that Disney or producer Jerry Bruckheimer want to make a musical version of their blockbuster franchise. But they do want to move forward as expeditiously as possible, and thus have been talking with a variety of directors recently, in the hope that Depp can do the next Pirates before starring in The Lone Ranger. The first Pirates movies were all directed by Gore Verbinski, who declined to move forward with the franchise in favor of pursuing a movie version of Bioshock. That particular project hasn't worked out so far, though it seems that Verbinski is ready to do something that doesn't involve pirates and high seas.

Meanwhile, this would be a strikingly sideways move for Marshall. Coming on board a successful franchise that has already grossed more than $2.6 billion worldwide is fraught with peril. And Depp's performances as Jack Sparrow have become iconic, so where will Marshall put his own personal stamp? Sources told Variety that the studio is so confident that he will sign on, they have already begun casting new characters that will appear in the next installment. Uh, shouldn't they wait for Marshall to sign on the dotted line?

Though it's still months away from release, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland has already generated considerable interest. Johnny Depp's star power can properly be credited -- who doesn't want to see him play The Mad Hatter? -- but I think most people would concede that the project wouldn't be 1/10 as promising if it wasn't Tim Burton at the helm. Burton has created more fantastical, wildly different worlds than most any other filmmaker, so the prospect of him unleashing his imagination on the world of Lewis Carroll is enough to make me giggle like a little boy.

All that to say that the official site for the filmmaker has a teaser gallery for The Art of Tim Burton, a massive book coming this fall that will provide "a comprehensive look at the personal and project artwork of Tim Burton," featuring more than 1,000 illustrations and 400 pages. A host of collaborators and friends, including Depp, Winona Ryder, and Christopher Lee, are contributing text to the book, which will have a number of fold-outs. Both standard and deluxe editions are promised.

In the meantime, you can look at a few of the pretty pictures in the gallery below, and then head to Burton's site to check out all the samples -- and you get to move Stain Boy around! It's a bit cumbersome, but cute. And the lovely, evocative images (Sleepy Hollow, Batman, and on and on) are a timely reminder that Burton began his career as an artist and animator, a key reason why he's developed into such a distinctive filmmaker.

Gallery: The Art of Tim Burton

I walked into the new film, convinced that it could never top lean, mean B-movie classics like Max Nosseck's Dillinger (1945) or Don Siegel's Baby Face Nelson (1957) in which these gangsters were initially immortalized. But it equals them, capturing some of their raw energy and allure and clocking in as a longer, but equally fast-moving and adrenaline-pumping example. Somehow Mann only manages to use the extra time for flash and spectacle, and hardly any for depth or detail, but that only helps to speed things along. Happily, he also avoids the typical origin story, and plunges right in.