The heyday of pirates and pirate movies was probably back in the black and white era when Errol Flynn strutted his stuff on the silver screen. Yes, it really has been that long, and most pirate movies since have met with either lukewarm responses or flopped tragically (Hook or Cutthroat Island, anyone?).
And then Disney gave one of the most successful producers of both film and television – Jerry Bruckheimer – a script (which it is rumoured he was not particularly impressed by) to make this movie called Pirates of the Caribbean. Trust Bruckheimer (Top Gun, CSI and The Amazing Race) to turn a dying genre into a worldwide phenomenon for all things pirate related.