Trailer Wednesday: Johnny Depp Edition

It’s Johnny Depp Appreciation Day here at Movie Muse, but very very unofficially. Turns out that the two most interesting new trailers both feature the international superstar: “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and the animated desert Western, “Rango.”

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Captain Jack is back. The fourth installment in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Disney mega-franchise finally arrives in May after a four-year hiatus. After being detained in London, Jack sets off to find the Fountain of Youth. Joining him is the lovely Penelope Cruz as Angelica. Geoffrey Rush returns as Barbossa and Ian McShane (brilliant casting) plays the bad pirate, the infamous Blackbeard. Rob Marshall (“Chicago,” “Nine”) directs, so expect extravagant costumes and sets at the least.

I think I had just enough of a break from “Pirates” to be excited about this one. The adventure is more akin to the first movie in that Jack’s seeking a mysterious and valued treasure and other nasty pirates are after it and the first is still my favorite. Not to mention zombies and mermaids also appear in the film, the former being a bit peculiar. It will be interesting to see how this works without younger stars holding up the “normalcy” like Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley did to counter the lunacy of Jack and other characters. Find out on May 20.

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Rango

After Gore Verbinski left his post as director of the “Pirates” movies, he started his production company, Blind Wink, and this was his first project. “Rango” tells the story of a kooky Hawaiian shirt-wearing chameleon/lizard (voiced by Depp) who while running from a hawk stumbles upon a Wild West town in desperate need of a sheriff. As luck would have it, the hawk gets squashed and Rango is pushed to fill the role.

Animated animal films have yet to take us to the desert, and the gritty but definitely cartoony look of the film has me thinking this could be a terrific start to animation in 2011, which could kick off three straight years of terrific animated films. Depp seems to have much fun with a quirky quasi-Southwestern accent as the unlikely hero. He fits the bill for beloved animated protagonists from what I can tell. “Rango” comes to town Mar. 4, which is the first big box office weekend of the spring season.

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