PIRATES 4 STILL A GO, DEPP CIRCLING TOURIST

News from the Johnny Depp front has the actor still busy at work with future projects. Amongst those projects is the fourth Pirates installment On Stranger Tides, which has been the subject of speculation that because of Dick Cook's ousting from Disney in September, Depp was backing out. Word from Jerry Bruckheimer this week begs to differ with that.

Collider.com got to talk to the mega-producer after a screening for the Prince of Persia trailer. Bruckheimer told the website that despite the recent surprise departure of Dick Cook, that the project was still definitely on-track. Apparently a script has been delivered, the Disney management shakeup will not affect the production and that principal photography is still expected to commence in 2010.

That's not all. Depp is still on board to play Tonto in Disney's remake of The Lone Ranger, plus news now comes that he is also circling around Spyglasses upcoming film The Tourist, it's believed that Depp is in negotiations to replace Sam Worthingtom as the male lead.

But that film is having it's fair share of issues: Director Florian von Donnersmarck has exited the project over creative differences, and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) is in early talks to step in. Angelina Jolie -- herself a recent replacement for Charlize Theron, who was long attached to the project -- remains in the lead female role.

The revamp of the 2005 French spy thriller Anthony Zimmer involves a female Interpol agent who ropes an everyman American tourist visiting France into being bait in the hunt for a wanted criminal who's also her former lover.

The rumour is that On Stranger Tides is the frontrunner for Depp (and Bruckheimer's revelation seems to confirm that), however there's still no official word on a director, and Depp has said that he'll only return if the script is good. We know that it's based on Tim Powers' novel which sounds like a good fit for the franchise; undead pirates, the Fountain of Youth and the legendary Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, it's kind of a return to the basics of the first movie. But with everything that's in the pipeline for Depp, maybe, just maybe, a July 2011 release is a bit of a reach.