31/05/2013 - The Norwegian directors of Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated Kon-Tiki signed for the new installment of the Hollywood-Disney franchise

Captain Jack Sparrow, aka US actor Johnny Depp, will take over the tiller from Kon-Tiki [+see also:
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Originally contracted to adapt Norwegian author Lars Saabye Christensen’s 1984 novel, Beatles, for a Norwegian production, they have spent time in the US celebrating the international success of Kon-Tiki, which took more than 900,000 admissions in Norway, before being nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and selling worldwide. (Beatles is now in the hands of Danish director Peter Flinth).

According to American trades, the Norwegian duo was preferred to US-Swedish director Fredrik Bond (The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (2013)) and UK director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)). “Pirates is the kind of films we grew up with, and which inspired us to become filmmakers – adventures as made by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis,” said Sandberg-Rønning,

Both from Sandefjord, with a film education from Stockholm, Sandberg-Rønning made – many award-winning - commercials through their Roenberg company, before in 2006 they directed their first feature, Bandidas, an English-language crime comedy starring Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek and Steve Zahn, scripted by French writer-director Luc Besson. Their next, Max Manus: Man of War (2008) sold 1.1 million tickets domestically.

Instigated in 2003 by Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was nominated for five Oscars, the franchise has so far grossed €2.9 billion. It is realised  by US legendary producer and nine-time Primetime Emmy winner Jerry Bruckheimer for Walt Disney Pictures – Disney also uses the concept for theme parks, spin-off novels and video games.