While Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was clearly the Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley’s show, the film series was also breeding ground for a number of talented actors in supporting roles over the years. In 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl, a young Zoe Saldana played one of the pirate ship’s crew before starring in many more studio films from Star Trek to Avatar. The actress has now signed on to star in a major Netflix movie about pirates and the Caribbean, but it won’t have anything to do with Mickey Mouse's ship.
One of Zoe Saldana’s many upcoming projects includes a movie called The Bluff, to be directed by Frank E. Flowers, who collaborated once before with the Guardians of the Galaxy actress back in 2004 for the movie Haven. The Bluff will work off a script by Joe Ballarini, who previously wrote 2017’s My Little Pony movie and Netflix’s A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting, per Deadline.
The movie will center on Saldana’s Ercell, a woman who lives on an island in the Caribbean in the 1800s. When Ercell’s island becomes invaded by vicious pirates, her “secret past” will be revealed, and she’ll be at war with the invaders, according to the report. The Bluff will be a big-budget action flick for Netflix that will blend visceral action with historical fiction. There’s also room for star power for a secondary female character at Saldana’s side and a “nasty” lead pirate. Neither of these other roles have been cast by the production.
The Bluff will also reteam Zoe Saldana with Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who will be producing the project with Mike Larocca and Angela Russo-Otstot, along with Zoe’s two sisters and partners on Cinestar, Mariel and Cisely Saldana. Since wrapping their work on Endgame, the Russos have been aligning themselves with a ton of projects featuring actors from the blockbuster. The filmmakers are getting ready to release Cherry with Tom Holland this weekend and to start production on The Gray Man with Captain America star Chris Evans.
The Netflix movie sounds like a great opportunity for Hollywood to explore pirates and the Caribbean without ties to the Disney property. The setup sounds like an exciting foundation for an exciting story, especially from a more mature lens than Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow. As far as Disney’s franchise, it doesn’t look like its famed pirate will return to the role, but there is a reboot from Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson and starring Margot Robbie in early development.
Aside from The Bluff, Zoe Saldana will reprise her role in James Cameron’s Avatar sequels starting in 2022, play Gamora in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and star in the next David O. Russell film with Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Anya-Taylor Joy, Rami Malek, John David Washington and Robert De Niro.
Check out all the Netflix projects coming out this year here on CinemaBlend ahead of The Bluff.
