The script is being written. Johnny Depp is almost certainly back. Geoffrey Rush is on board. But who's going to direct the thing? Here are some of the runners and riders to potentially director Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides.

GORE VERBINSKI

Even though he's reported to have turned down the project some time ago, and even though he directed the reasonably shitty second and third movies in the saga, he's still got to be one of the favourites. His planned film version of Bioshock is stuck in development hell for a little longer, and he is still the man who made the terrific part one, and also directed a favourite of ours, Mouse Hunt. We don't think he'll end up wielding the megaphone on Pirates 4, but he's certainly a runner.

ROB MARSHALL

He's on the list due to rumours linking him with the film some months ago. Marshall is the man who steered Chicago and Memoirs Of A Geisha to the big screen, and while he'd certainly be a bit of an unusual choice given his lack of action credentials, he's in with Disney, and he knows his choreography. Nobody moved to denounce the rumour that he was in talks over the summer, and as he puts the finishing touches to his new film Nine, you wonder if he's in pole position for the Pirates gig. It certainly looks like it.

TIM BURTON

The rumour mill has attached his name to the project too, but it's hard to see where the appeal would be for him. Burton doesn't strike us as the kind of director to go and direct instalment four of someone else's franchise, nor the person that keen to revisit studio-owned franchise waters again. We suspect that were Johnny Depp not in the cast, Burton's name wouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as Pirates 4.

ALFONSO CUARON

Ah, he'd be our choice. He's already proven with his Harry Potter outing - Prisoner Of Azkaban - that he can not only pick up someone else's franchise, but that he can also add a real edge (of sorts) to it. There were some stunning sequences in Potter 3 too that happened on his watch. He's less proven with the comedic aspects that the Pirates movies demand, but he'd be one hell of a choice. We'd put David Yates on the list too were he not wrapped up with the remaining Potter films until 2011 himself.

MARTIN CAMPBELL

Depending which Martin Campbell you get, you either get a rollicking good family adventure (The Mask Of Zorro), or a tired retread over similar material (The Legend Of Zorro). Campbell might be a dark horse for Pirates, but he's still someone who should be considered. He's got action firmly on his CV (Casino Royale, Golden Eye), and he's proven he can deliver a good family movie. He works well too within other people's franchises, and that might nudge him up the list.

JAMES McTEIGUE

A man who seems to be heading for a franchise movie at some point. With V For Vendetta on his CV, and a lot of work with the Wachowski Brothers on the Matrix trilogy, McTeigue's name has more recently been linked with the director's chair on Superman. With that project not at all likely to happen anytime soon, could Pirates enter the frame? Don't rule it out.

JON TURTELTAUB

Jerry Bruckheimer's other big franchise for Disney is the National Treasure films, and is it thus inconceivable - given that a third National Treasure still seems some time away - that the reigns to Pirates will go to the man who steered the first two NT movies? Don't rule this one out. He's not going to radicalise the formula, which may or may not count against him dependant on how much of a reboot Disney actually wants to do, but he'd be a damn safe pair of hands.

TERRY GILLIAM

You'd suspect that Gilliam is probably a gamble too far for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, and Warner Bros certainly wasn't keen on giving Gilliam a Harry Potter movie to play with (he was J.K. Rowling's choice, apparently). Appreciating that Gilliam's experiences with the Hollywood system too aren't great, and that he's no fan of production line movies, this is a long shot at best. Yet Gilliam and Depp have history, and when Gilliam does deliver a major Hollywood movie, the very least it tends to be is interesting. But would Disney take the gamble? Probably not.

MIKE NEWELL

Another man with Harry Potter links (this isn't deliberate), and also the helmer of one of Johnny Depp's finest films, Donnie Brasco. Newell is currently on the payroll of Jerry Bruckheimer, given that he's in post production on the big screen adaptation of the videogame Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. Depending how that's shaping up, Newell may yet have a shot at ordering around Captain Jack Sparrow.

QUENTIN TARANTINO

Admit it: you'd watch it, wouldn't you?

Who do you think will be directing Pirates 4? Leave your thoughts in the comments...