Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Release: July 2006

June 4th
Pirates DMC won Best Movie at the MTV Movie Awards this weekend, and Johnny won Best Performance. Keira was also up for Best Performance. Ah well, at least she isn't in rehab. Or prison.

April 30th
Keira has been nominated for Best Performance in Pirates DMC at the MTV Movie Awards, to be held on June 3rd. Voting opens soon here.

February 26th
The Pirates franchise won its first Academy Award last night when Pirates DMC won Best Visual Effects. It was nominated in four categories. Pirates CBP was nominated in five categories and won none.

February 11th
Pirates DMC won one BAFTA tonight, for Visual Effects. Full list.

January 23rd
Slightly less to report from this year's Academy Award nominations, compared to last year, but Pirates DMC is up for four of the little gold men: Visual Effects; Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; Art Direction.
Thanks Elaine

January 14th
Pirates DMC premieres on UK pay-per-view next week. Sky Movies Box Office has the first showing on the 19th, with Telewest/NTL on the 24th. Sky Movies also has a behind the scenes film showing at these times and channels.

January 12th
Pirates DMC has been nominated for five BAFTAs in the technical categories: Visual Effects, Costume, Hair and Make-Up, Sound and Production Design. Full list.
Thanks David

January 10th
Keira and Johnny won Best On-Screen Match-up for Pirates DMC at the People's Choice Awards. DMC also won Best Movie and Best Film Drama. Full list of winners here.

January 8th
Pirates DMC is up for six nominations at the annual VES Awards, from the Visual Effects Society. Full list.

December 20th
Pirates DMC was the biggest film of the year at the UK box office, taking £52m. Article.

December 18th
ILM's work on Pirates DMC has been shortlisted for the Visual Effects Award at February's Oscars, Variety anounced Friday.

December 17th
The Pirates DMC DVD sold 10.5m units in its first week in the US, and looks set to beat the current bestselling DVD of 2006, The Chronicles of Narnia. A re-release of Pirates CBP in the US this week has also come in at No.9.  It has repeated its British record-breaking performance in Japan where it has become the biggest selling DVD of all time. Meanwhile, Pirates DMC has greatly contributed to a successful box office year in US cinemas, with admissions forecast to be 2.6% up on last year. 2005 was 8% down on 2004.

December 9th
Disney appear to be pushing Keira for the Best Actress category at the Golden Globes, rather than Supporting Actress. There was a full page ad in the LA-area Backstage West magazine this week. Nominations announced Thursday 14th. See scan.
Thanks AF, JDR

December 6th
The DVD of Pirates DMC has sold nearly 5 million copies on its first DAY of release in North America, according to this article, becoming a hot contender for the biggest selling live-action DVD of all time.

December 3rd
Regarding the Variety feature on Golden Globe hopefuls, the feature inside had this to say about Pirates DMC:
- Why it will be nominated: It's no stretch to imagine Globes will be in the same boat as the millions who made the pic the year's top grosser. As one of the rare mega-franchises to compete in this category, it has an advantage with profile and excitement that few competitors can match.
- Why it won't: Despite its financial success, the charm and nimbleness of the original may have dimmed too much between installments. With the original pic failing to earn a nom, it's unlikely the sequel will fare better.

December 2nd
It's time to dig out the old awards icon again, although it won't be used quite as often as I did this time last year, sadly. However, Disney are pushing Keira, Johnny and Orlando for Golden Globe nominations for Pirates DMC right now, and Johnny was on the cover of Variety this week, in an attempt to catch the eye of the voting panel (what they call 'For Your Consideration'). 'Best Actress In A Supporting Role' would be a nice addition to the CV/resume for Dame Keira, though, don't you think ? Nominees will be announced on December 14th, with the ceremony on January 15th.
Thanks AF, JDR

November 28th
Pirates DMC has become the biggest-selling DVD in the UK ever. It's sold 1.5m since going on sale November 20th, that's a quarter of all the DVDs sold during that time. Article.

November 26th
With this weekend marking the end of the fiscal year in the US movie busines, Pirates DMC came out as the top-grossing film of 2006. Article.

November 22nd
Here'a an article on Zizzle's lucrative tie-in with Disney to sell Pirates DMC merchandise this year.

November 14th
Disney has reported a doubling of profits for its last fiscal quarter (July-August 06), thanks mainly to its studio entertainment section, including box office hits cars and of course Pirates DMC. Article.
And Disney has recently made available Pirates DMC for iPod download from Apple's iTunes store. Article. You can download it directly from this link (US iTunes store required).

November 8th
What appears to be the 'blooper reel' feature from the Pirates DMC DVD has appeared on YouTube. Watch.

November 7th
Keira and Johnny are up for Best Match-Up at the People's Choice Awards. The ceremony will be on January 9th. Article. Vote here.

October 30th
Here's a couple of snippets of Pirates news: Niagara Falls filming - JB interview

October 24th
Pirates DMC has been nominated for Best Feature Film and the Public Award at the Children's BAFTAs. The ceremony will be on November 26th in London. Article.

September 28th
You can see the cover of the Pirates DMC DVD here, and I've just spotted a 2007 calendar too.
Thanks Adam Reed

September 24th
Pirates DMC is now the fourth biggest movie ever at the International (ie. non-US) box office, with $617.3m, knocking Harry Potter And The Chambr of Secrets down to fourth place. Italy's late release of DMC continues to pull in the crowds as the film had taken $15.5m by last Wednesday. The global figure is now $1.036bn.
Source: Variety

September 19th
Here's the official press release announcing the arrival of the Pirates DMC DVD(s) on December 5th.

September 18th
Pirates DMC continues to break records. Its late opening in Italy on Friday saw it break through the $600m threshold at the International box office (non-US), only the sixth film ever to do so. It's total of $612m places it at No.5 on that chart, but is within days of becoming the No.4. Global box office is now $1.03bn. In italy itself, the movie brought in $12.8m in just five days, more than double the performance of Pirates CBP there. It was enough to return DMC to the No.1 movie currently showing at the international box office, a position it lost to Cars last week.
Source: ScreenInternational

September 16th
Pirates DMC is now available for pre-order, and will be out on November 20th. Amazon UK has a limited edition with artwork postcards, and a saving of £11 too. Please click the the link to Pre-order.
Thanks Adam Reed

September 12th
Pirates DMC took a further $7.7m at the international box office this week, giving a new total outside the US of $592.4m. US total is now over $416m, meaning the global total is now 54% higher than the final figure of the first Pirates movie. With Italy still to debut DMC this Friday, it should climb from 6th to 4th most successful movie of all time at the international box office. Britain continues to bring in the highest non-US total, $94.7m, with Japan second on $81m.
Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's Motion Pictures Group, said today: "We feel there are really no bounds for the worldwide appeal of the stars -- Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom -- particularly with the popularity of the first two films."
Source: Variety

September 10th

It's official ! Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is now the third biggest movie of all time. Disney made the announcement yesterday. The all-time chart now looks like this.

So what, exactly, has brought in the booty for this movie ? I have my theories. It's not the promotion as that seems to have been spent on action figures, lunch boxes and Kellogg's cereals; it's not the overwhelming praise from the critics because half of them panned it; it's not the special effects or even the continuation of a popular storyline. The reason DMC has become the third biggest movie in cinema history is because of the bringing together of not one but three massive fanbases - star power, but more importantly the supporters of those stars, has made this film the success it is.
Since Black Pearl, Johnny Depp's already large fanbase has likely more than doubled since he gave us Jack Sparrow in 2003. Orlando Bloom's growing fanbase from Lord of the Rings exploded after his appearance as Will Turner, and Black Pearl was truly Keira's breakout movie (Bend It Like Beckham became big worldwide, but only very slowly and only in limited theatres - Pirates CBP put her on the map globally).
I wonder if the cast, crew and companies involved will acknowledge that it's primarily the power of us, the fans, who have made this movie a 10-figure Box Office blockbuster ? Sadly, I think we all know the answer to that question.
Still, we must congratulate Keira on being part of the third biggest movie ever made. It's her second in the Top 10, along with Phantom Menace.

September 6th
It's nearly there - Pirates DMC has now totalled $993.7m around the world, just a few days away from being the third biggest movie of all time. The US total is currently $414.2m, providing a non-US total of $579.5m. It is still packing out cinemas in countries where it opened several weeks ago - France $2.4m in this, it's fifth week, and Japan another $1.6m in its seventh week. The UK has the biggest non-US tally for DMC, coming in at $93.9m. It has still to open in Italy next Friday.

August 28th
- Pirates DMC is now within days of passing Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone to become the third biggest movie ever, and is within seven days of breaking the $1billion global box office figure, only the third movie ever to do so. This week raked in another $17.8m outside of the US, giving a new international total of $554.7m. Added to the US domestic figure, DMC has now achieved $962.3m (Harry Potter peaked at $976.5m).
- In the US, it is the sixth biggest movie ever, and will remain so as the number of theatres now playing the movie decreases, so that figure is unlikely to pass the current No.5 movie, The Phantom Menace. US tally is now $407.6m.
- Internationally, DMC is now the biggest movie this century, due to it being the No.1 movie for eight consecutive weeks. The previous record of seven weeks was the first Pirates movie.
- Around the world this week, DMC debuted in Greece, breaking the Greek box office record for any movie. A $2.6m debut there was 25% above the previous record holder. Even in war-torn Lebanon, where people have more important things on their minds right now, DMC was the year's biggest movie, taking $100,000 on 65 screens. It remained the No.1 film in France and Germany. France took a further $3.2m, Germany $2.3m, Japan $2.2m, Spain $2.1 and the UK $1.1m. British tally is now $91.5m, almost £50m.
Source: Variety

August 23rd
The big numbers keep rolling in for Pirates DMC.
This week alone: $25.5m at 6,222 screens in 51 countries, notably Spain (second week): $5.1m on 758 screens; France (third week): $4.8m on 750 screens; Germany (fourth week): $3.5m on 1,380 screens; Japan (fifth week): $4.1m on 711 screens; UK (seventh week): $4.1m at 711 screens.
Global box office is now $923.8m and Variety says ""Dead Man's Chest" has a decent shot at becoming the third film after "Titanic" (with $1.8 billion) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" ($1.1 billion) to gross more than a billion dollars worldwide."
Source: Variety

Comic lovers will want to know that the new issue (No.103) of Archie & Friends is out on August 29th. It features a POTC-inspired story with characters based on Keira, Orlando and Johnny. See exclusive examples of the artwork by Andrew Pepoy here and here. For more info visit archiecomics.com
Thanks Andrew, Rik

August 21st
Keira's beach tantrum in Pirates DMC won her Choice Hissy Fit at yesterday's Teen Choice Awards, and DMC won seven surfboards in total. Details here.

As expected, Pirates DMC will be out on DVD in December, Buena Vista Home Entertainment confirmed today. Availability and 'featurette' content sounds much the same as CBP, according to this article.

August 20th
Piraets DMC today becomes the first film this year to pass $400m at the US box office, having taken another $5m this week. It is now at No.8 after seven weeks. Overseas it has taken more than $463m making a global tally of $864m. It has now passed Finding Nemo in the all-time charts to become Disney's biggest ever movie, a No.7 placing, pushing Nemo down to No.8. It only needs another $7m to put it in the all-time Top 10.

August 15th
Pirates DMC has already won its first award - The Hollywood Film Festival will award it the Visual Effects trophy at the ceremony on October 23rd.

August 14th
Pirates DMC has now grosssed $855m worldwide, the 12th biggest movie ever made. By the end of August it will become only the seventh movie ever to pass the $900m mark. It debuted in Spain on 980 screens this week, bringing in $11.4m, a new Spanish record. Another $8.5m in France brings its total to £30m in 12 days. In Germany, $5.6m this week makes a total of $45.7m there, and another $2.3m in the UK makes a British total of $85m.
Source: Variety

August 11th
The latest global figure for DMC is $772m, with forecasts of it beating Finding Nemo to become Disney's biggest ever grossing movie. Its French debut this past week brought in $18m on 700 screens, and a still-impressive $3.4m on 485 UK screens, now in its fifth week in Britain, totalling $80.6m in the UK. In Belgium, ticket sales went UP in its second week, and fell only slightly in Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and Mexico. DMC is now the No.7 biggest film ever in the US, and 19th worldwide (Finding Nemo is currently 11th). It opens in Spain today, another strong market, with Greece (24th) and Italy (September 15th) still to come.
Source: Variety, BoxOfficeMojo

If you've been looking for the SUV that Volvo and Disney buried as part of the Pirates DMC promotions, you can stop looking - somebody's found it. Article.

August 7th
And here's another one with photos from the DMC premiere in London.

August 6th
Pirates DMC fell to third place at the US box office this weekend, but racked up another $11m in the process. Total US tally is now $380m, making it the No.8 biggest-grossing movie in US box office history. In the UK it is set to top the £50m mark ($93.5m). This week's total outside of the US is $55m, pushing the movie past $300m in foreign markets. The worldwide overall total is now $681m, making it the 23rd biggest grossing movie of all time.
Source: Variety, BoxOfficeMojo

August 4th
Pirates DMC opened in France on Wednesday to another record-breaking figure. It sold 693,023 tickets for the first day's screenings, beating the previous French record of 641,000 for Star Wars Episode 3. This gives the movie an opening of $4.4m en France.

August 1st
The worldwide box office for Pirates DMC is now in excess of $664m, beating the closing total of the first movie which was $653m, and DMC is yet to open in over a quarter of its countries. Here are the figures from debut countries last weekend: Germany $18.8m on 903 screens; Austria $2.8m on 105 screens; Belgium $2.2m at 125 screens. It raked in another $6.4m in Japan and $4.9m more in the UK, taking Britain's total box office to $72.4m. The movie opens this weekend in France, Hong Kong, South Africa and Colombia.
Source: Variety

July 30th
As expected, the resurrected Crockett & Tubbs have defeated Pirates at the US box office this evening, although Johnny & Co. still took another $20.5m, bringing its US takings to a new Disney record of $358.4m. Around the world the film has now passed the $200m mark at non-US box offices, and grossed $60m from 35 countries just last week. It took $17m of business in its opening week in Japan (four times the debut of Black Pearl there). Mexicans flocked to the film to the tune of $5.8m and in Brazil to $3.1m. The UK gross has now topped $62m with $80m expected before it leaves cinemas. German figures are still to come in, and it opens in France next week, with Spain and Italy two more big markets yet to open in August.
Source: Variety

July 25th
Pirates DMC opened in another 11 countries over the weekend, adding another $11m to its total takings, and debuting at No.1 in every country's box office. It took $7m in its third week in the UK, making the British tally now $62m in just 17 days. With the film still to open in major countries like Germany, Spain, Italy and France it looks set to surpass its predecessor in global box office (a target of $653m, DMC currently stands at $540m). At present it's the 37th biggest-grossing movie of all time and may well end up in the Top 20. This would be Keira's second movie to do so, after The Phantom Menace.
Variety, BoxOfficeMojo

July 23rd
The records continue to fall for Pirates. DMC is now the fastest movie to reach $300m. It's feat in 16 days beats last year's Star Wars Episode III by one day. It has taken another $35m at the US box office this weekend, making a new US total of $321m. Three new releases were expected to make a dent in DMC's takings this weekend, but Johnny and co. fought them all off easily. Worldwide tally is now in excess of $539m.

July 22nd
I've waited until now before I updated the Plaudits page with Pirates DMC criticism so as to allow the majority of reviews to be published. They're all now in but there wasn't a lot to say about Keira's performance among the critics. Most of the reviews had too much else to say, mostly about Johnny, and the duration, and the subplots. But having read as many as I have today, a pattern formed quite early on - critics hated this movie. Ironic really, considering it went on to break every box office record in the book. All they had to say about Keira was that she was under-used, gave a better performance than in the first film, and that her and Orlando were virtually superfluous, and were only there to help the box office. Ouch. Plaudits.

July 17th
DMC continues to make new records in almost every country it's opening in. ScreenDaily has the following figures from the current overseas performance of DMC:
Opening in Russia, the picture plundered the biggest industry debut in history on $10.4m from 530 screens. Sweden generated a top three all-time launch on $3.4m from 125, as did Denmark on $2.6m from 80. Pirates 2 took $2.3m from 114 in Holland, $2m from 100 in Norway, $1.5m from 150 in Turkey, $1.8m from 65 in Singapore, $1.4m from 49 in Finland, and $1.1m from 70 in Malaysia. $1m from 125 in the Ukraine was enough to set a new industry mark there. In its second weekend the picture added $12m from 514 in the UK for $50m, $5.5m for $17.2m in Australia, and $4.4m for just shy of $16m in South Korea.

July 16th
Pirates DMC has taken $62.2m at the US office this weekend, a drop-off of 54% but still enough to keep it at No.1. Its 10-day gross was another record, $258.2m.

July 15th
First week box office for DMC in the US was $196,019,502

Another UK premiere special is now online, with brand new interviews and different scene footage: Part One 14Mb - Part Two 14Mb

July 11th
Head of Disney Bob Iger issued a press release congratulating cast and crew on the record-breaking performance of Pirates DMC. He thanks Keira nightly, apparently. Lucky man. Read.

ITV's UpClose section has an interview with Keira, put together from the red carpet and the press conference.

July 10th
Pirates DMC took $46.6m outside of the US in its three-day opening, according to ScreenInternational. It says:
Pirates took $25m in the UK on 514 screens, some 258% better than the 2003 original; $9m in South Korea on 350 for the biggest Hollywood launch in industry history fared 248% better than the original; and $8.1m in Australia on 281 that was 111% bigger than Curse of The Black Pearl. Elsewhere it grossed $1.9m from 18 in Taiwan, $1.4m in Thailand, and $1.2m on 72 in New Zealand. Results for Uruguay were unconfirmed at time of writing.

Meanwhile ChinaDaily confirms the movie will not open in China due to the cannibal scenes.

July 9th
The figures are in... and four records have been smashed this weekend by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at the USA Box Office.
1. $132,028,000 - highest-ever 3-day opening.
2. $55.5m on Friday alone - highest ever 1-day takings.
3. $100.2m Fri/Sat - first movie to break $100m in two days.
4. $31,945 - highest per-cinema takings for an ultra wide release (4,133 screens).
Variety has the breaking news, available now on the KeiraWeb Newsletter.
BOP has an analysis of the figures.

A couple more full shows from the last few days. First is ITV's coverage from the UK premiere, with red carpet interviews and behind the scenes stuff (10Mb each):
Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four

Next is a behind the scenes show from UK movie channel eatCinema. This is similar to the Starz and Sky programme but features more interviews, longer scenes and extra making-of footage:
Part One 11Mb - Part Two 6Mb - Part Three 9Mb - Part Four 9Mb

And here's a couple of features from Friday's E! News. First is a report from the French premiere on Thursday in Paris (1Mb), and then a segment on the cast confusion from filming both sequels at once in the Caribbean (3Mb). Don't forget you can see all the DMC clips on the Pirates DMC promotions page.

July 7th
- Attention now turns to the box office figures for Pirates DMC. Today's Variety has a very insightful preview article, which you can read in full on the KeiraWeb Newsletter. The movie will open at a record 4,133 screens across the US, with online tickets sellers reporting double the sales for Superman Returns, and MovieTickets.com hailing its pre-sales as its largest so far this year. Experts predict DMC could beat the record for a three-day opening at the US box office, currently held by Spider-Man 2's $114.8m.
- The World Cup final on Sunday has intervened to stop the movie opening as wide internationally as it would otherwise have done. It opens in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.K. and Uruguay today, but will compete with Superman Returns in all those countries except the UK (where Superman will open next Friday). Then next weekend, it opens in Holland, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Scandinavia and Singapore. On July 21st, it opens in Brazil, Mexico and Japan and then launches in Germany on July 28th, followed by France the following weekend.
- Interestingly, the article also states the Pirates 3 subtitle as being "At The End Of The World", rather than "At World's End". This is the first time I've seen this particular wording, and Variety is rarely, if ever, wrong.
- In the table above you will find daily updates on the worldwide box office tallies for Pirates DMC. First US figures are due on Sunday evening, with international counts due on Tuesday.

Edit: Since writing the above this morning, British media are reporting that Pirates DMC has already broken the first-day opening record for UK cinema, taking £2.3m in preview screenings yesterday. It opens officially today. This beats the previous record of £1.57m for Spider-Man 2. Advance ticket sales in the UK were in excess of £1m.

Here's the Keira interview from yesterday's CBS Early Show. Nothing new if you're keeping up to speed with the other interviews.

This page has a diary from a cast member on DMC (possible spoilers).

July 6th
- Keira pre-recorded a radio show this week at London's Capital Radio. The station's owners, GCap Media, also own a network of local radio stations around the UK. The show was broadcast on many of those stations at 1pm on Thursday 6th. See some images from the recording here. Keira answered questions and telephoned two people live on air to ask for their questions. She also chose her own playlist, which was as follows:
Britney Spears - Toxic; Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out; Lily Allen - Smile; James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag; The Killers - Somebody Told Me; Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man; Gnarls Barkley - Crazy; Scissor Sisters - Laura; The Police - Roxanne; Dido - White Flag.
- Some of the reasons for choosing those songs included: Britney because it's a favourite at her girlie nights in; Dido because she's British; James Brown because "anyone who can wear lycra and a cape is cool", and The Police because "it's about the only song I know all the words to!" She spoke about her privacy, some beauty tips, being starstruck and being nude!
- Download the interview here: Full show (mp3) 32Mb
Three parts (wav): One 7.5Mb - Two 7.5Mb - Three 6.3Mb
Huge thanks to Edward for the split parts

Here's a video taken by my friend Isabella of Keira signing autographs at the UK prem. Isy's failure to turn the camera after Keira has gone past is due to her shock at Keira recognising her from previous encounters and saying a special 'Hello!' to her. She has that effect on people :-)

July 5th
Here's Keira at the DMC press conference yesterday, talking about the anorexia rumours: 1.8Mb

Here's the edited version of E!'s Red Carpet show from the DMC US premiere, showing the main cast interviews only: 9Mb.
And a report from Children's BBC Newsround: 2Mb
Good Morning America had an interview yesterday (see Hot Topics).
Thanks AF

Here's Keira's waxwork at Madame Tussaud's in London, part of their POTC exhibition. Looks more like a cross between Shakira and Jennifer Saunders.
Thanks Amo

July 4th
More premiere and DMC promo clips...
Studio interview with Keira 5.5MB
GMTV#1 6.2Mb - GMTV#2 2.5Mb - LK Today 7.7Mb
This Morning 9Mb - Five News 3.4Mb

US prem: Star! Daily 1.6Mb
DMC features: MovieEntertainment 4Mb - ET Canada 3.6Mb
DMC Canada TV Spot 600kb
Thanks Sherri

Article round-up: People- Hello! - BBC - Empire - Times
Pics: Premiere - Radio 1

July 3rd
Keira joined Johnny Vaughan's breakfast show on Capital FM this morning. Listen to the interview here, and see some pics here. She then visited Jo Whiley at BBC Radio 1. Listen here.

Here are the first pics from the UK premiere tonight.
Videos: BBC 4Mb - ITV 2.6Mb - Sky News 4Mb

I'm informed the French premiere (as part of the Paris Film Festival) will take place at the Champs Elysees Gaumont on Thursday 6th. Johnny, Orlando, Jerry and apparently Keith Richards will attend.
Thanks Tim

July 2nd
Keira will be popping in to chat to Johnny Vaughan on his Capital FM breakfast show tomorrow morning, between 6 and 9am. Johnny and Keira presented the Comic Relief programme When Johnny Met Keira in 2005. Listen here.

Keira will be on the CBS Early Show on Thursday 6th, the same day as her DJ stint in the UK, so one of them must be pre-recorded - but which one ? Answers on a postcard...
Thanks AF

Here's a couple of Keira interviews from the New York Daily News and Belfast Telegraph. And a brief article about the WaterAid shoot in today's Sunday Times.

DMC cast and crew interview at CinemaBlend, and more at RopeOfSilicon. A Gore interview at the Boston Globe.
Thanks AF

July 1st
Here's a brilliant DMC behind the scenes show premiered on Sky Movies this evening, hosted by Pintel and Ragetti. It's in four parts, although my hardware recorded it in mono for some stupid reason, so I'll cap it again in stereo when it repeats. It's called 'Secrets of the Dead Man's Chest' and it will probably be on the DVD:
Part One 14Mb - Part Two 12Mb - Part Three 11Mb - Part Four 9Mb

You can now submit your questions to Keira for Thursday's radio show by clicking on your local station from this list, then click Ask Keira and fill in the form. Keep your questions general rather than local, and don't bother with anything TOO personal ! Many of the stations have a 'Listen Live' audio stream if you can't tune in or if you're outside the UK.

As well as visiting Jo Whiley on Radio 1 on Monday, Keira may also be popping in to Capital FM round the corner from Leicester Square. I'm trying to get this confirmed.

MovieTickets.com reports a 20% increase in advance bookings for DMC compared to that for CBP in 2003.

June 30th
"You're listening to Keira Knightley FM" !
As part of her promotions for Pirates DMC, Keira Knightley will be hosting her own radio show next Thursday across the UK, between 1pm and 2. The exact stations are still to be announced but is likely to include most if not all of the ones in this network of local stations.  Keira will be answering questions and playing her favourite songs. Makes a change from Jay Leno, doesn't it ?! It has been arranged between BVI (Pirates DMC European distributors) and GCap Media, owners of the stations. Depending on the participating stations, a live Internet stream may be available. More details soon hopefully. Article.

June 29th
One more vid - Tuesday's Enterainment Tonight US: 3.4Mb

June 28th
At last ! Some Keira interviews:
E! News: 3Mb - Entertainment Tonight Canada: 3Mb - Extra: 3Mb
US premiere, Entertainment Tonight: 3Mb - Tonight Show With Jay Leno: 800kb
Thanks Sherri

Report on kissing both Johnny and Orlando, Sky News: 900kb

Pirates booty:
- Naomie Harris interview from DarkHorizons, and from ComingSoon (spoiler about ES).
- Orlando interview from ComingSoon.
- Pirates 3 update from IGN: 70 days of filming left.
- Johnny-focussed clips from premiere reports.
- Premiere diary at MiceAge, report in Variety and video from Reuters.
- Article on Pirates vs. Superman.
- Early reviews... all good, even Rolling Stone. All of Keira's plaudits as Elizabeth will be on this page.
Thanks Amo, AF

Keira will be a guest of Jo Whiley on next Monday's show on BBC Radio 1, the day of the premiere. She did a same-day interview with her for P&P too, while I was at the studios and from which I took this pic. You can listen in from around 11am BST here, or at the Listen Again link after broadcast.

June 27th
Pirates stuff:
- New DMC videos: A couple of clips from the premiere. More to come: E! 3Mb - Daily 10 2Mb
Short version of UK TV Spot commercial: 700kb
Johnny Depp interview: ET 3Mb  - 'Captain Jack' featurette: 4.7Mb
- Keira is finally getting a waxwork tribute by Madame Tussauds in London, but only as part of their POTC tie-in feature. See scan from this week's Heat magazine.
Thanks Amo
- Keira is interviewed by ET today or tomorrow, as per this article. The UK has a 2-day broadcast delay on Sky One.
- There's a new featurette on the filming locations here.
- After what seems like centuries of he's in/he's out regarding Keith Richards' role in Pirates 3, it would now appear to be confirmed that he WILL be playing Mr. Sparrow Senior. Better film his scenes quickly, Gore, before he falls out of another tree.
- An article on the DMC tie-in books about to hit the shops.
- You can buy tickets to any of the regional UK premieres on July 3rd from here.

June 26th
Pirates DMC - US premiere round-up:

Two UK clips from the premiere: GMTV 2Mb - Sky News 3Mb

Articles: Hello! - USAToday - ITV - ET - Insider - MickeyNews

The usual suspects in the US will have TV coverage - E!, ET, Insider, Extra. If anyone can put the E! Special onto fileshare I'll host it here, otherwise I've been offered a DVD-in-the-mail, but that could take a week or more.

We await the reviews avalanche. The reason there's been none so far is because Disney hadn't finished the CGI for the closing scenes so rathr than distribute DVDs or offer screenings of a 95% complete film, they said they'd wait till it was done. I predict most critics will still say it's too long, and that the ending lets it down anyway. Of course, this film doesn't tie up all the loose ends as it needs to lead into Pirates 3, but critics will conveniently ignore that.

Promo interviews: Johnny - Gore Verbinski - Ted & Terry -  Various cast & crew

June 25th
Keira once again wore white to the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean, but this time it was a stunning white chiffon Chanel dress which seemed to glide over the red carpet. KeiraDaily has some nice pics here. And Keira Seduction has a seductive gallery too, as does WID. Celeb photo forum Superior also has HQ pics.
No TV coverage here in the UK as of yet, and very little online mentions. The only showbiz story today has been the marriage of somebody called Nicole Kidman. Here's a page on the premiere from the BBC, from Children's BBC and another one here. But the LA Times reports on the apparent disorganisation of the event.

ITV have just shown a "Book Tickets Now!" TV Spot for DMC showing new footage, including Will Turner getting his face slapped from the same Tortuga girl Scarlett as Jack did in CBP, and quite a bit of new stuff with Elizabeth.

June 24th
And JDR has some Johnny interviews. There's a brief Keira interview in the ET segment.
Thanks AF

June 22nd
If you're planning on collecting all Pirates DMC-related merchandise, you might want to read this article.

MSN have announced they will webcast the DMC premiere live, from 7pm PDT (midnight EDT, 3am BST).

June 21st
MSN have a new interview feature called Inside Look: Jack Sparrow, with a couple of comments from Keira. See it here, or download it from here.
Thanks Fliss, Yo

June 20th
Pirates update:
- Bill Nighy is interviewed by Time Out magazine here.
- Kevin McNally (Mr. Gibbs) helped Gethin build a model Black Pearl on BBC1's Blue Peter tonight. Always a show perfect for Keira publicity in my opinion, this is probably as close as we'll get. If you want to make the model ship, go here.
- Sky Movies have a behind the scenes show, premiering on July 1st. Check the TV Guide on the right for dates and times.
- Zap2It have a DMC swag bag up for grabs here.
- Orlando tells Top of the Pops magazine that Keira is a great kisser. Article.

June 19th
Pirates bits:
- There's been a lot of confusion lately about the Disneyland premiere. Phone calls have resulted in people being told they won't get to see the premiere, etc. My guess is that what people mean by the premiere is the red carpet arrivals, whereas Disneyland staff refer to the actual movie screening as the premiere (which is ticketed invitations only). If there were no fans for the red carpet event, it would be the quietest, most boring world premiere in the history of cinema ! MousePlanet have now published a page with all the details of Saturday's events.
- US TV: E! will have a special 30-minute show from the premiere on Sunday 25th at 6pm EDT, and the TV Guide channel has a special show too. Again, I'll post the show here if anybody wants to cap it for poor old me in the UK. Oh, and Johnny Depp joins Letterman on the 29th (30th in the UK).
- There are whispers of a French premiere of Pirates DMC at the Gaumont Champs Elysees in Paris on July 6th. Although officially a preview screening, I'm informed that a member of the cast normally attends such an event, especially as it will take place during the Paris Film Festival. Let me know if you hear anything more. There's also a Tokyo premiere, apparently.
Thanks Cassie of knightley-infos
- Kellogg's UK has launched a similar tie-up with Pirates DMC as they did in the US. See their site for more info. Or buy some special Keira-pictured Cornflakes packets.
Thanks Adam Reed

June 18th
Johnny's on the cover of and interviewed inside the next issue of Newsweek. See cover. Read interview.

June 17th
Disney have just issued the official press release for the US premiere of Pirates DMC, confirming Keira will be there, and the movie's rating as PG-13. Read it here.

Some new DMC-related scans are online - a feature from last weekend's Sunday Times magazine, and a Johnny v. Orlando article from the Sunday Mirror. See them in the middle column of the Pirates DMC promo page, under Newspaper/Magazine Scans.
Thanks Tamise for the ST scans

There's a spoiler or two about Pirates 3 here.

June 14th
The first screening of Pirates DMC in the UK will be on June 27th in London's West End. It will be a private screening but FilmFactory are giving away tickets. Click here, answer the question, then register for free.
Thanks Amo

The new TotalFilm magazine has a feature on DMC, with a short interview with each of the cast. Here's the cover, and Keira's page.
Thanks David

June 13th
Here's the Pirates DMC clip shown on the MTV Movie Awards at the weekend. And the US Starz network series On The Set has a new one from the set of Pirates DMC, starting June 23rd. Check the US TV schedule for dates and times. We don't get that in the UK so if cappers can oblige I'll host it here.
Thanks Vini

June 12th
COMPETITION: If you're attending either Pirates premiere (US or UK), you may be interested in this competition. And there's money at stake, people !!!!

ComingSoon has a Bill Nighy interview today.

June 11th
The Pirates talk show circuit schedule has started to appear, but it's Orlando who will be chatting to Jay Leno (on the 23rd) and David Letterman (on the 29th). So perhaps Keira WILL be covering the Europe circuit after all ? I'll try to find out.

Volvo's tie-up with Disney to promote Pirates DMC continues with another competition where they have buried a car - if you find it, it's yours! Details here. Meanwhile, the New York character lookalike contest has moved venue to FAO Schwarz if you need to know.

May 31st
Such is the box office expectation of Pirates DMC that, not only have all distributors steered clear of a July release for their films, but Warner Bros. have now pulled forward by two days the release of Superman Returns, so as to get some extra mileage out of it before Pirates dominates theatres for probably the whole of July.

Here's an article on Pirates merchandise, and discusses the possibility of Pirates 4 and beyond.

May 30th
Pirates toys are due to hit the UK stores on June 10th.
Thanks Adam Reed

This snippet says a casting call is being held in Shropshire today for Atonement. Keira lookalikes are apparently required.

May 27th
The official Pirates DMC web site is now fully online.
Thanks Adam Reed

May 26th
Pirates DMC news:
- It may be just a coincidence, but there always seems to be a calm before the storm when Keira has promotions about to get under way. That certainly seems to be the case at the moment. I read somewhere that Keira will be 'doing Europe' with Pirates promotions, and Johnny/Orlando doing North America. But somehow I don't think Leno, Letterman et al can resist having Keira back again :-). But it would be nice to see her on Jonathan Ross and Parkinson on this side of the pond for a change.
- The new issue of Empire has a preview of DMC.
- LA business leaders have predicted that Pirates DMC will be the winner at the summer box office. Article.
- Request: Due to changes in UK broadcast times, can someone States-side please let me know if E! News or ET feature Pirates/Keira segments over the next six weeks, preferably on the day they are broadcast. I will be able to capture them when they are eventually broadcast here in the UK. Thanks. PS: Anyone else think E! News has gone down the pan since Ryan Seacrest joined ? It now seems to revolve around his celebrity pals and his radio show. Oh, and footage of non-entity Paris Hilton. And that's only because E! won the rights to show the next Simple Life season.

May 23rd
The manufacturers of the Pirates DMC merchandise, Zizzle, are holding a Jack, Will and Elizabeth lookalike contest in Times Square, New York on June 13th. There's a brand new Volvo up for grabs and a treasure chest full of official POTC toys. They have sent me the press release which can be read here.

There's a new set of official DMC stills at this site, too.

May 21st
The official UK Pirates DMC site is now active, awaiting full launch.
Thanks Adam Reed

Pics: KeiraDaily has some new ones of Elizabeth, and WID has the full set of new Silk snaps.

May 17th
Looking at the box office calendar it seems that Pirates DMC will have its biggest competition in the form of Superman Returns. The Man of Steel returns to the big screen the week BEFORE Pirates in the US and the week AFTER Pirates in the UK. Distributors have wisely avoided releasing any of their hopefuls around these two films.

May 11th
A fuller version of the official Pirates site is now online.

The full range of Pirates of the Caribbean toys will be in UK shops from June 7th, available at Woolworths, Toys-R-Us, Argos and Amazon.
Thanks Adam Reed

May 10th
Disney have confirmed that its partnership with McDonald's Happy Meals will end this summer after the Pirates DMC figures have been released, one of which features Elizabeth Swann and will be available from late May/early June. Article.
Thanks Addam Reed

May 4th
The full Pirates DMC trailer is now online at Yahoo! Movies.
Thanks Butherus

May 3rd
Entertainment Tonight had a Keira-focussed preview of Pirates DMC last night. See it on Youtube here.
Thanks Andrew

May 1st
The first proper Pirates trailer is imminent. UK viewers can see it tomorrow morning at 7.45am on the Sky News showbiz report, but it may well appear online before then. There's a rough copy of it here, if you can get the file to play (which I couldn't).
Thanks AF

April 28th
The UK premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is confirmed for Monday July 3rd at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square. The US premiere will be at Disneyland on June 24th.
Thanks Amo

Read much more about the Pirates DMC storyline here, but beware of spoilers.

And ET are doing some kind of segment on DMC in tonight's show (Monday or Tuesday in the UK).

April 25th
Pirates DMC has its own MySpace. More here.

April 19th
Aint It Cool News has some new cgi artwork of a couple of Davey Jones' mutant crew Macchus and Hadras.

POTC: The Legend of Jack Sparrow is another tie-in computer game, due out in July. Article.

April 15th
And the current issue of Grazia has a funny interview with Keira's Pirates co-star Jack Davenport (Commodore Norrington). One - Two
Thanks David

April 12th
Gamers may be interested to know that Disney are developing an MMO RPG based around Pirates of the Caribbean. Read the press release if, like me, you want to know what the hell an MMO RPG is.

March 10th

The official designs for the Pirates DMC cinema foyer 'character standees' are out now. Click for Elizabeth, Will and Jack.

March 5th

PIRATES PREMIERE:
The US and World premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has been confirmed for Saturday June 24th in the New Orleans area of the Anaheim Disneyland park in California.
Thanks JDR via AF

March 1st

This article from a Bahamas newspaper says that Pirates cast and crew are due to finish in the Caribbean completely by midweek, and that when filming resumes in late summer it will be studio work in LA.

February 27th

Oscarphiles can now view the KeiraWeb guide to Academy Awards UK and US TV coverage and analysis here.

Pirates co-writer Terry Rossio has updated his blog for the first time in six months.

Meanwhile, Oscar-nominated make-up artist Richard Snell died in his hotel room in the Caribbean on Saturday while working on Pirates DMC. He was 49.

February 21st

CanMag has what may be the first character poster from Pirates DMC. See if you can spot the difference between this and the first one.

February 15th

Elizabeth Swann gets her own adventure book this summer when Disney publishes a junior tie-in book called Swann Song. (Completely irrelevant but a coincidence nonetheless, one of Keira's earliest TV appearances was in the police drama The Bill, in an episode also entitled 'Swan Song').
Thanks Natalie

ComingSoon have the French one-sheet poster for DMC, as first mentioned here last week.
Meanwhile, Keira reveals she had to climb to the top of a ship's rigging for a scene.
Thanks Adam, Amo

February 13th

Sky News has a collection of new and old Pirates filming pics here. Click the word Pictures in the red box.
And official Pirates toys went on show at a New York toy fair yesterday. More details of the merchandise here.

February 10th

Here is a page of Pirates DMC action figures, and the hammerhead man-creature from the teaser trailer is now revealed to be called Maccus, which is Gaelic for hammer.

February 7th

In other news, what may be the first one-sheet poster for Pirates DMC has been posted over at CanMag. A bit brighter than the first one, Barbossa has been replaced by the Kraken's tentacle.

January 15th

You can download a full-screen version of the Pirates DMC teaser from this page. If you use the VLC Player you can slow it down to one-eighth speed, always useful for spotting things you'd otherwise miss.
Thanks Fliss

January 9th

As Disney lost out completely on merchandise tie-ins for the last Pirates movie, they're certainly making up for it this time. There's no end of things about to appear to help sell the movie, stuff you'd never think possible. How about some Kellogg's Pirates of the Caribbean breakfast cereal, for example ?

With the promotion rollercoaster kicking off already, I've decided to write and put online the Pirates DMC promotions page now.

January 8th

Readers of Empire film magazine seem to concur with Coming Soon about the most eagerly awaited movie of 2006 being Pirates DMC.

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland California closes March 16th to around June 16th this year for major refurbishments. New attractions, props and elements from both Pirates movies are being installed and the ride will get its grand reopening on the day of the Pirates DMC premiere, once again to take place in the New Orleans Square section of the Anaheim park in the second half of June. The Magic Kingdom Pirates ride at the Florida site will also be updated to coincide with DMC's release.

January 6th

There's been a lot of buzz since New Year about Pirates DMC being one of the films with the greatest expectations for 2006, and now ComingSoon confirm that it's the movie most moviegoers are waiting for too, in their new poll.

January 5th

Disney's Movie Surfers show had a quick interview with Orlando recently and showed some non-teaser footage from DMC. There's two quick glimpses of Elizabeth in her tricorne hat. 15Mb avi.
Thanks Serena at BloomKnightley

And AOL Moviefone have a new feature on Pirates DMC here.