Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg. We got to interview them for the #PiratesLifeEvent and we had a ton of fun talking with them. It was clear from the moment they walked in that they had a ton of chemistry together and obviously had a great work relationship. We found out they had been working together since they were 10 years old and hilariously they used to break dance together! And they admitted there are old films of them dancing. I want to see them.
When we asked them how the movie fell into their lap they both exclaimed, “We chased it!” They are both huge fans. Espen Sandberg said, “We really wanted to make this movie. And I think the basic reason as you know Joachim and I started making movies together when we were 10 years old. Movies that inspired us back then was you know the Spielberg and Lucas and Zemeckis films. And this franchise just reminds us of that. And it has that unique blend of spectacle and humor and scary parts and also a lot of heart. So that meant a lot to us”
Since we found out that they had been friends a long time and had been working together, we asked if their families were close and if their kids got along and worked together like they used to.
Espen Sandberg – They’re best friends actually so they are super close, so. And they’re doing a lot of creative stuff so we’ll see.
Joachim Ronning – Yeah, we have five kids between us. I have two, Espen has three.
Espen Sandberg – They’re nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. Yeah, so it’s a good bunch to travel with.
I hope we see collaboration from their kids in the future. I bet it will be amazing given how great their dads are. Keep your eyes open for it in a few years.
We complimented them on how awesome the special effects were on the movie and we asked about the very cool, scary dead shark scene in the movie. And they both kind of hemmed and then laughed and said it was in the script. The design of the ghosts became part of the process they did with Javier Bardem and production designers and the VFX supervisors and they wanted to give it a ghostly apperance without losing the actors which they did wonderfully. The ghost sharks came from that.
They told us that with all the stuff that gets cut (and this has been a four year long adventure for the) that they had the most different scenes with Jack Sparrow’s back story. His origin story, how he became Jack Sparrow and all of that. Like they had 10-15 different versions. They said it was a long and grueling process because of the mythology of Pirates of the Caribbean, the series, and movies. They didnt want to step o anyone’s toes because they joked that they fans know everything. Espen said, “You know and we also wanted to blend that back story of Jack also with Salazar’s s that their relationship, and the revenge story, became personal so to speak.”
‘Treasure doesn’t have to be a chest of gold. Even for a pirate’ Directors Joachim Ronning & Espen Sandberg @DisneyPirates #pirateslifeevent
— Kat Balog (GoS) (@genofsavings) May 20, 2017
They told us that it was a dream come true for the to direct and its so much bigger than themselves. They certainly seemed still starry eyed about the film and about working with Johnny who they said it funny and all of Jack Sparrow is him. All him. They both would go to his trailer in the mornings just to make the already good scenes even better. It was a fabulous time talking with them and from what I have seen of their work, I will continue to love them as directors.
See Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in theaters NOW!
I’m looking forward to watching another Pirates of the Caribbean movie.