Now this is a bit more like it. Earlier in the week, Johnny Depp had confirmed the news that neither Orlando Bloom nor Keira Knightley would be returning for the new Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, which begins filming this summer.

Which left the question: just who would be in the cast? We already knew that Penelope Cruz had signed up for the adventure, and rumours have suggested that the marvellous Geoffrey Rush would too be returning. But in a piece of casting news that's completely reignited our interest in the project, the latest name to be linked with the film is Ian McShane.

We're clearly wanting the Ian McShane from Deadwood rather than the man who played Lovejoy for years, and given that he's been linked with the role of Blackbeard, the villain in the new movie, that's likely to be what we get.

This hasn't been confirmed, but given that the news has come from The Hollywood Reporter, we would imagine that's a formality. We'll report the confirmation once we get it, though.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides sails into cinemas (see what we did there) on May 20th 2011, with Rob Marshall steering the ship (okay, we'll get our coat...).

The Hollywood Reporter