It's now been confirmed what one Den Of Geek commenter had noted a couple of weeks ago that Disney will, indeed, be using Tim Powers' 1987 book On Stranger Tides as the basis for the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean adventure. That was pretty much confirmed when the title of Pirates 4 was announced to be fair, but now the author of the book himself has been revealing just a little bit more to the Los Angeles Times.

Powers revealed that his book had been optioned by Disney around three years ago, and when specifically addressing what parts of his book the studio would be looking at, he told the L.A. Times: "I've watched all the movies several times, of course, and I think the clear thing they would use is the trip to the Fountain of Youth"

He continued, "My main character doesn't overlap with Jack Sparrow at all; they're totally different characters. I suppose they might overlap the Geoffrey Rush character Barbossa and Blackbeard. The only thing I feel certain they will hold on to is the Fountain of Youth since they telegraphed that at the end of the last movie."

This Fountain Of Youth angle has since been confirmed by screenwriter Terry Rossio over at Empire.

The film is set to start shooting next year, ahead of a release in the summer of 2011.

L.A. Times