海角大神

There鈥檝e been three movies released under the Disney banner these past 3-4 years to gross more than $1 billion at the global box office (excluding Marvel Studios titles and Pixar films); Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and . While the Mouse House is moving full speed ahead with , followups to the other aforementioned titles are either slower-moving or non-existent (鈥� at the moment, anyway).

鈥� tentatively titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales 鈥� had originally been eyed for a Summer 2015 release, but ended up being delayed for additional development; more recently, the news emerged that the project . Jeff Nathanson (Tower Heist) is still working on the film鈥檚 script, though earlier this month producer Jerry Bruckheimer voiced his confidence that the screenplay could be in shooting shape in time for production (in order to make a Summer 2016 release).

Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn spoke at the Bloomberg Business of Entertainment Breakfast, where he spoke about upcoming projects such as . He was asked about Bruckheimer鈥檚 claim that Pirates 5 could being filming this fall, to which Horn replied (via ):

鈥淚t鈥檚 possible. We haven鈥檛 seen a screenplay yet that I鈥檝e been able to sign off on鈥� There鈥檚 a lot of variables that effect the final outcome once it leaves the studio lot, so we are very careful.鈥�

Bruckheimer ended with Disney last year, so that may be part of the reason that Pirates 5 is progressing along slower than expected. Not to mention, Pirates franchise lead Johnny Depp鈥檚 last Disney genre blockbuster, , lost the studio a bundle and his expensive sci-fi thriller is currently under-performing at the box office. Combine that with the fourth Pirates installment being the yet 鈥� diminishing the goodwill earned by previous chapters (okay, at least the first movie) 鈥� and Disney has all the more reason to be cautious about charging full-steam ahead on this project.

Frozen, on the other hand, is a film that the Mouse House is rapidly developing into a multi-platform franchise 鈥� just not one that includes additional movie installments, at this time. Horn, at the Bloomberg event, said that the Disney company is hard at work turning Frozen into a Broadway stage musical 鈥� following in the footsteps of previous hit Disney animated musicals like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King 鈥� but that a film sequel 鈥渉adn鈥檛 even been discussed.鈥�

The Oscar-winning Frozen makes sense as the basis for a stage musical; besides featuring a cast that includes major Broadway alum, befitting a Broadway show 鈥� with its show-stopping tune, 鈥淟et It Go鈥�, being very much a descendant of the Broadway school of music. As far as movie sequels go, arguably fellow animated feature Wreck-It Ralph creates a world that is ripe for further exploration 鈥� hence we鈥檙e happy knowing that is in the works 鈥� far more than Frozen does (which seems perfectly fine as a self-contained story).

That said, Frozen still did earn over $1 billion in theaters around the globe, so it鈥檚 doubtful that most anyone will be surprised if a sequel conversation does, in fact, get started sometime down the line鈥�

Sandy Schaefer blogs at .