Exclusive Interview with Directors Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg Pirates of The Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is a unique blend of spectacle and humor and scary parts and also a lot of heart in a new tale with Captain Jack Sparrow. In our exclusive interview the Norwegian directing team of Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg talked about how making this movie was one they chased.

In our exclusive interview with Directors Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg they shared this movie wasn’t given to them but they had to chase it. They have been lifelong friends and have been making movies since they were ten years old. Espen and Joachim were inspired by greats like Spielberg, Lucas, and Zemeckis. This franchise reminds them of that.

Their chemistry shows what an amazing team they are. They showed how much this franchise means to them and how they wanted to get the job done perfectly but they also showed a lot of humor. (My Take on them-) These are two guys who work you hard but will have a beer with you at the end of the day.

It has that unique blend of spectacle and humor and scary parts and also a lot of heart. ~ Espen Sandberg

photo credit: Disney

T2T: The special effects were amazing. One of the things that surprised me the most I think or I was taken aback by the most were the sharks. What made you decide to go with dead sharks and how did that come about?

ES : It was in the script from the beginning.

JR : It’s a huge inspiration.

ES : Brilliantly written by Jeff Nathanson. It became our job to translate that and to add elements in the action sequence. The idea was on paper, that scene where he jumps over the boat and all, that’s all coming as we’re developing the idea. But the ghost sharks are part of the look of the ghosts basically.

You know that was important to work –. The design of the ghosts became a long process that we did together with Javier Bardem as well. And the production designers and the VFX supervisors and going in and trying to find what can give it a ghostly appearance and then without losing the actors basically. Javier is so wonderful and you don’t want to mess it up too much. So, that’s where it started. And then the ghost sharks came from that trying to be a part of that family, so to speak.

T2T: You work with a team and you work as a team so often, do you have individual roles interacting?

JR : We only work every other day.

ES : It’s very easy for everyone.

JR : I think that we –. I mean, as Espen was saying, we don’t really know any other way of doing this then being together. For us, it’s a very natural process. And I think it’s a collaborative one. We include the actors and the crew and everyone as part of the discussion basically. And we try to create safe work environment as you could say.

You know where every odd day is welcome and we can, everybody can be a part of the discussion. And that’s important to us. I think that’s probably one of the strong advantages that we have as a directing team.

They wanted the audience to know the back stories and in one scene we see a young Jack. Espen said they shot with Johnny and used the “Youthification” process. Johnny was a little freaked out but very happy with it. When you first see it, you will recognize Johnny as a youth! I found it quite amazing myself.

T2T: What was it like working with Johnny Depp? And what was the chemistry like onset?

JR : Oh, it’s amazing. He’s so funny. What you see with Jack Sparrow is, it’s all Johnny. And he’s a genius. I mean for us he’s like up there with Chaplin and the other ones because his timing is just perfect and he has such a weird imagination. So he comes up with the craziest ideas. And for us, the highlight was always going into his trailer in the morning and going through the scenes and the lines and trying to come up with even more cool stuff to do to make it even more funny.

And of course when we started shooting he would do something completely different. And everyone was sort of thrown off but that also makes it come alive and funny, so.