Director Rob Marshall (Memoirs of a Geisha, Chicago, Nine) recently sat down for an interview and talked a bit about taking over the directors chair for the Bruckheimer produced, Disney film – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and based on the 1988 historical fantasy novel “On Stranger Tides” by Tim Powers.

When asked how that gig came about – Marshall said,

“I was so surprised they called me, It was Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer. Jerry called me, but Johnny was interested in working with me. It’s a wonderful thing when something like that happens, so we sat and met and he could not have been more lovely. He’s the nicest man. I’ve been very lucky to work with some great people and he’s one of them. So I could tell that we could maybe do this, and then they offered it to me.”

He added,

“We’re still trying to figure out if it’s going to all happen, If it happens–I think Johnny’s doing a movie with Angelina Jolie in the spring (that’s The Tourist)–so if it happens, we’ll start in the summer, and we’ll see. I’m excited. If it happens, it happens. I’d be thrilled. I just love Johnny and I’m excited about the genre.”

He laughed when asked what direction he hoped to take the movie visually – saying,

“I would need a script first, It all comes from the script and the story. You serve the story and you find out what the story is and then you work from there, that’s it. It’s simple.”

When asked whether or not Marshall has the sea legs to direct a Pirates movie – Marshall said,

“I like the sea, but I know a lot of it I don’t actually have to be on the boat itself, I can be off with my monitor and they can be on the boat. I’m sure I’ll jump on there and be on there many times because I actually enjoy water so I’m excited about that.”