A week or two back, Disney confirmed the title for the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, and last week we had stories that the departure of Disney head honcho Dick Cook has slightly tempered Johnny Depp's enthusiasm for the project. That said, if Johnny Depp doesn't end up headlining Pirates 4, then we shall subject ourselves to a High School Musical movie marathon.

Today, anyway, there's happier news, with Geoffrey Rush confirming that he's returning as Captain Barbossa in the film. Talking to MTV, Rush - who wasn't aware of the movie's title! - revealed that he'd been asked to block off some time for the shoot, and that he's expecting to be before the cameras next Spring.

He also said, "They're waiting for the screenplay writers to put together something that's beyond the trilogy, take it off into a new direction so that it's fresh and hopefully really interesting for an audience. That they're not going to just sausage-machine out something else, which wouldn't be so good."

Given the complex nature of the production for the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, you would expect that the announcement of who will be directing On Stranger Tides can't be too far behind. Rob Marshall, of Chicago fame, was the last name to be linked with the job, but that was a good month or two now. We'd quite like to see what Neill Blomkamp would do with it...

Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides is scheduled for the summer of 2011.

MTV