Feature: Summer Movies

Orlando Bloom

Things will be hotting-up at the movies over the coming months, and our definitive guide will reveal all you need to know about the 40 scorchers that are simply not to be missed, starting with Pirates star Orlando Bloom…

Orlando Bloom is understandably grinning from ear to ear as he tells Film Review that his life has been made up of happy surprises. Relaxing in the luxury of a suite at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the Pirates of the Caribbean star insists that one of the biggest shocks has been how he has developed into a swashbuckling hero of the big screen.

“I never thought I would be doing as much action as I have been,” explains the actor, who’s now clearly relaxed with his A-list status, as he reflects over a career that has seen him star in two of the biggest adventure franchises in Hollywood history. First there was his appearance as the bow and arrow toting Legolas in behemoth that was The Lord of The Rings trilogy and now he’s about to see the Jolly Roger fluttering defiantly once more as he sets sail with Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley in the third installment of the Pirates of The Caribbean phenomenon.

As the last all-star voyage in Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest raked in more than $1 billion at the international box office to become the third most successful movie hit of all time, much is expected of Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End. And, by the sounds of it, the latest romp isn’t going to sell the fans short. Picking up from Dead Man’s Chest, after Bloom’s Will Turner and Knightley’s Elizabeth Swan have rescued Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow from the jaws of the Kraken, they plunge headlong into another action packed adventure – this time voyaging to the Far East. Now our heroes have to round up buccaneers from the seven seas – cue the arrival of Chow Yun Fat as Captain Sao Feng and the return of Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa – to defend the pirate code in a fight to the bitter end.

Breathless stuff indeed and it’s so enticing that Film Review, fingers crossed, wonders whether we might dare hope that things are being neatly set up for a fourth film in the Pirates series. But Bloom, who has seemingly added diplomacy to his talents in the five years or so that he has been a member of the Pirates crew, is giving very little away.

“I don’t know whether they will go on to Part Four,” he says. “This is the end of another trilogy. But I would never say never, because it has been so much fun!”

A large chunk of the anticipated fun in At World’s End is, of course, the appearance of Rolling Stone Keith Richards as Captain Jack’s dad, Teague Sparrow. It is one of those screen events that you feel is destined to earn a page in Hollywood history, but Bloom confesses that the filming of Keith’s cameo is something he missed out on. What’s more astonishing is that he made the deliberate decision not to watch the rock legend swash his buckle for the cameras!

“I actually made a point of not going to the set [when Keith Richards was there] and I am kicking myself for it now,” explains Bloom. “I thought he was going to be so hounded, even though he is a rock god. So I thought ’Let him get on with it’ and I did not bother him.”

by John Millar

Find out more about the treats in store for Summer 2007 in
Film Review (Sum)

Image © Visual Imagination Ltd
Feature © Visual Imagination 2007. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Film Review (Sum)
#684, Summer 2007
ships from May 16 2007
News-stand Price
UK £3.99 / US $7.95

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