Like so many other big budget movie adventures of recent years, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” is sailing into theaters on the increasingly trendy wave of 3-D. But unlike the vast majority of these post-conversion blockbusters, “On Stranger Tides” sports a key difference: this one was shot from the ground up in 3-D.

“We shot it in 3-D,” director Rob Marshall told MTV News of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” filmmaking process. “It wasn’t converted. It wasn’t done on a soundstage against a green screen. It’s all very real.”

Yes, very real indeed — a real pain in the you know where, if Marshall’s recollection of shooting the film is any indication.

“It’s complicated with 3-D. It’s delicate,” he said. “We were kind of crazy doing it, because we were bringing all this equipment into very remote locations. We were in caves and jungles and waterfalls and beaches and ships with this equipment.”

But even though shooting the movie in 3-D required additional equipment and therefore additional physical and mental stress, Marshall argued that the results were well worth it — especially given the nature of Captain Jack Sparrow’s high seas adventures.

“Even though it’s more complicated and it’s more expensive, it felt right for this film, because you’re inside the movie, inside that adventure with the pirates and Jack Sparrow — immersed into that world,” Marshall said. “It’s a great world to be part of.”

Do you plan on seeing “Pirates” in 3-D, or are you not convinced by the craze? Tell us what you think in the comments section and on Twitter!

Laugh it up all you want, but according to Deadline there’s a strong possibility that J.J. Abrams could go from directing Star Trek to directing an adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked. Granted, he’s not the only one taking meetings about the project — others include Rob Marshall, James Mangold and Ryan Murphy — but just seeing him on there leads us to believe Universal wants to explore all their options and not go directly after “the guy you go to when you want to make a movie musical.”

That’s not to say that “guy” isn’t also on their list. Marshall has plenty of experience in movie-musicals, having helmed Annie, Chicago and Nine, while Murphy is the one responsible for turning Glee into one of the most popular shows on television right now. Mangold, too, has dabbled in music having directed the biopic Walk the Line — and even Abrams has helped compose the themes for some of his TV shows. So, yeah, all these guys make sense for different reasons, and it seems like Universal wants to explore a number of unique ways they can attack the adaptation of one of Broadway’s most popular musicals.

Wicked, of course, follows the relationship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, the green chick who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The musical tracks them as little girls through the events of the Wizard of Oz and then after. It’s a fun story, and one that was originally supposed to be a movie before Universal decided to make it a musical first. Now, with a number of other Oz projects in the works, the studio needs to make a move before there’s too much competition, and also before audiences become sick of the property.

Out of those four guys, who would you like to see direct Wicked?

Filed under: Music & Musicals, RumorMonger

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