Chapter 123:

When I heard that Martin had filed a script for a pirate-themed series, Alan Horn, who had been visibly excited just a moment before, suddenly went cold and slumped back in his chair.

"A pirate movie? Are you sure?" he asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

"Yep, the script's called Pirates of the Caribbean," came the reply.

"Damn it, how could Martin make such a mistake? He should know better. With his market sense, how could he get involved with pirate movies? The genre's been completely ruined by Hollywood!" Alan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, pausing before waving dismissively at his assistant. "You can leave now. I'll think it over later."

"What about Martin?" the assistant asked.

"Don't contact him yet."

—

That evening, Shirley Lansing of Paramount also received word that Martin had submitted a new script.

She immediately instructed her assistant to work overtime to acquire the script.

"A pirate movie?" Shirley hesitated, much like Alan Horn had.

—

The next day, news of Martin's script spread, and it soon appeared on the desks of numerous industry leaders.

However, nearly everyone had doubts about the script's viability. Harvey Weinstein even mocked Martin in front of his brother, saying, "This kid Martin must be crazy. Who does he think he is, writing a pirate-themed series? Even if God himself tried, he couldn't save this kind of project!"

Bob Weinstein shook his head, adding, "Martin's lost it."

But why did everyone have such a negative reaction to pirate-themed movies?

It all traced back to a disastrous film released in 1995—Cutthroat Island.

That movie became infamous in Hollywood, not for its success, but for its catastrophic failure. It ended up being a financial black hole, so much so that it was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for losing more money than any film before it.

With a production budget of $92 million, it only grossed $9.5 million at the box office, causing the bankruptcy of the production company, Carlock Pictures. The distributor, MGM, was also severely affected, with its stock price plunging.

Carlock Pictures was not a small, unknown company. In fact, before Cutthroat Island, it had been one of the most successful independent production companies in Hollywood, and Miramax was its little brother. The company had been behind hits like Terminator 2, True Lies, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct.

But, as often happens in Hollywood, success bred overconfidence. Fueled by past victories, Carlock Pictures decided to go all-in on Cutthroat Island, hoping to create a blockbuster that would surpass Terminator 2. The movie's pirate ship alone cost $5 million to build, and the crew shot the film on the open sea to capture the best possible visuals. The actors even did their own stunts in the thrilling action scenes.

The result? The film flopped spectacularly, and Carlock Pictures declared bankruptcy, eventually being acquired by MGM, whose stock price had also plummeted in the wake of the failure.

After that, the pirate movie genre was effectively blacklisted in Hollywood. No studio dared touch it for years, and the phrase "pirate movie" became a byword for failure.

As a result, Martin was quickly labeled "out of touch," "done for," and "arrogant." The most vocal critics were, unsurprisingly, Harvey Weinstein, with Tom Cruise gleefully watching from the sidelines. With Martin's plans faltering, Cruise felt a sense of relief, knowing that Shirley Lansing would temporarily shelve her partnership with Martin.

But not everyone was dismissive of Martin's script.

One such person was Michael Eisner, the formidable CEO of Disney.

—

Disney's Meeting Room

Michael Eisner pounded the table and asked, "Has everyone read the synopsis of Martin's script?"

As the executives nodded, he pressed on, "What do you think? Should we collaborate with Martin on this series?"

One of the executives responded cautiously, "After all, it's a pirate-themed movie. We should be careful."

Eisner, who prided himself on defying "incompetent conservatives," sneered inwardly. He found such opinions too timid.

But this wasn't an isolated viewpoint. Most of the executives in the room were skeptical about the viability of rebooting pirate movies at this time.

But who was Michael Eisner, if not a man of bold decisions? His nickname, "the Dictator," wasn't earned by following the crowd. His vision had been instrumental in rescuing Disney from its lowest point and catapulting it back to the top.

In fact, Eisner had toyed with the idea of adapting the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland into a movie as early as 1990.

He had initially hired Jay Walpert, a well-known family film screenwriter, to craft a script based on the attraction, and Jerry Bruckheimer, the legendary producer, was brought in to supervise. However, Bruckheimer rejected the script, deeming it "an ordinary pirate movie" full of childish humor and lacking the potential to be a hit.

So, the Pirates of the Caribbean project was shelved.

But Eisner didn't give up. Before Martin submitted his script, Eisner had contacted Stuart Beattie, a screenwriter familiar with pirate themes, to rewrite the script, planning to bring in writers Terry Lucio and Ted Elliott to inject more childlike and fantastical elements into the story.

Then Martin's script arrived, and Eisner read it with a sense of excitement.

This was it. This was the version he had been waiting for. The script that embodied the vision he'd hoped to bring to life.

So, despite the overwhelming skepticism from the rest of Disney's executives, Eisner made a firm decision.

"This series of movies," he declared, "will be made by Disney!"

[•———•——•———•]

𝙥𝗮𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙣(.)𝙘𝙤𝙢/𝙂𝙤𝙙𝙊𝙛𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧