Depp Pirates Up Again, Also Mad as a Hatter…and Tonto, Too

Johnny Depp undoubtedly excelled on International Talk Like a Pirate Day last week. 

Oh, did I give away too much in that title? Well, let’s just clarify–according to Variety, Johnny Depp made an appearance at the Walt Disney Showcase today to announce he will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He also will be playing Tonto in a new Lone Ranger movie and to no one’s surprise, will play the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s upcoming adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Depp was the good sport at the event, showing up in Jack Sparrow costume with a Lone Ranger mask. No details about the next Pirates movie. The Lone Ranger is being scripted by Pirates writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. And nothing about who will play the masked man himself–I previously suggested James Marsden and hope the studio was listening…yeah, I don’t think so either.

And you knew Depp was going to be in Burton’s Alice–it was just a matter of who he would play. The Mad Hatter is fine, but I could just as easily see him as the White Rabbit or White Knight. Alice will be shot using 3-D and performance capture technology, a la last year’s Beowulf. It’s set for a 2010 release.

SlashFilm said that concept art for the film was shown, and that while the drawings had a definite Tim Burton style to them, they weren’t that wildly different from the original Tenniel illustrations. That’s no surprise–I’d think Burton was interested in the project at least partly because of the classic Tenniel art.

Now all that’s left is the “Helena Bonham-Carter will play…” announcement. Most likely she’ll be the Red Queen, but maybe Tim will surprise us.