Last week I went to Producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s office in Santa Monica to get an early look at the “Prince of Persia” trailer.  Perhaps you read what I wrote.  Anyway, after the presentation ended, I walked outside the screening room and Bruckheimer along with “Prince of Persia” creator Jordan Mechner were standing nearby talking. While not wanting to interrupt their conversation, when you have an opportunity to ask one of the biggest producers in Hollywood a question or two, you sometimes have to get aggressive. I walked over to say how much I liked the trailer and how I thought this might finally be the video game based movie that kicks ass.

But once the “Prince of Persia” talk ended, I decided to ask Mr. Bruckheimer what’s up with “Pirates of the Caribbean 4″. As you might have heard, a management shakeup recently happened at Disney and rumors have been flying that Johnny Depp might not do the film with former Chairman Dick Cook out of the picture. Since no one has been able to confirm or deny the rumor, with my limited time I decided to ask Mr. Bruckheimer three questions: I asked what’s up with the script, when are they going to shoot the film, and did the regime change cause any problems. He told me they’ve gotten the script, the management change will not affect the production, and he believes they’ll be filming next year. Of course things change along the way, but the way he spoke to me about the project, I believe the Black Pearl is going to be looking for the Fountain of Youth quite soon.

I know it’s a minor thing but adding a release date and a subtitle to a fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie along with a Summer 2011 release date makes it feel like the film is really happening and it’s not just on Walt Disney’s wish list.  Real details like plot, screenwriters, director, casting, etc. are all in the future but Disney doesn’t want this project in development hell.  It wants people to know that the fourth movie is called “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and that folks should prepare to set sail in Summer 2011.  Hit the jump to find out where the plot may go and if we’ll see the return of the series unforgettable character, Captain Jack Sparrow.

BfDealMemo is reporting Rob Marshall (”Nine”, Chicago”) is about to sign on as the director of “Pirates of the Caribbean 4″. While some had thought director Gore Verbinski might return to the franchise as his “Bioshock” movie fell apart at Universal, it appears Disney is set to continue the franchise with new blood. More after the jump:

I’ve worked for Collider almost four years now. In that time, I’ve interviewed tons of people in Hollywood. But I’ve never interviewed Johnny Depp. That changed today.

That’s because our partners at Omelete were invited to an international press conference with the press-shy actor and they sent me to cover it. So thanks to them, I was finally able to ask Johnny Depp a few questions. And yes, it was very cool.

The reason Johnny was here in Los Angeles was for his new movie “Public Enemies”. In the film, Johnny plays John Dillinger and he spoke at length about why he wanted to play the role and what research he did. In the coming days I’ll have the full transcript and the audio of the press conference, but tonight I wanted to focus on what he said about some of his upcoming projects.

After the jump is what Johnny said about “Alice in Wonderland”, “Dark Shadows” and “Pirates of the Caribbean 4″.