Rob Marshall Directing Pirates of the Caribbean 4

Ever since Gore Verbinski bowed out of directing Pirates of the Carribean 4 to work on his Bioshock movie we have all been wondering who would be tapped to direct. Wonder no more. According to Variety Chicago director Rob Marshall has been tapped to helm the franchise. Pirates of the Carribean has made DISNEY 2.6Billion and in tapping Rob Marshall they are clearly taking this one in a new direction.

Instead of Pirates, Verbinski is putting his time into some other of his own projects such as 'Bioshock', an adaptation of the bestselling videogame for Universal Pictures.  John Logan (Sweeney Todd) has written the script and this is expected to be Verbinski's next job.

Verbinski's Blind Wink Prods. is also developing a bunch of other potential projects for him to direct, including 'Clue', a murder mystery based on the best-selling board game, and even a drama based upon a Wall Street Journal Article following the online fantasy role playing world and it's impact on the lives of the players.  It sounds like Verbinski will be busy for a long time to come, so there's no way for Disney to even delay Pirates to get him on board.

"I had a fantastic time bringing 'Pirates' to life, and I am eternally grateful to Jerry, Johnny and the rest of the creative and production team," Verbinski said. "I'm looking forward to all of us crossing paths again in the future."

Currently, Verbinski is still working with Depp, actually.  He's been directing a CG animated film for Paramount called 'Rango', and Depp is the voice of the lead.  Again Logan wrote this script on an idea from Verbinski and has a March 2011 release date set currently.