Pirates 5 “Dead Men Tell No Tales” begins filming Down Under

We learned a few months ago that Queensland, Australia had won the right to host production for most of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” the fifth entry in the blockbuster movie series inspired by the classic Disney theme park attraction. The previous four films have reaped $3.7 billion at the box office, so there are high hopes for this next film.

The news today is that production has officially begun and we have the first look at the cast and plot for the new film. Plus, we already have a picture from the set in Australia.

Two weeks until we start shooting Pirates 5. Joachim Rønning just posted a great pic from the set in Australia. pic.twitter.com/TeVRacmNdp

— JERRY BRUCKHEIMER (@BRUCKHEIMERJB) January 30, 2015

Joining Johnny Depp, who will reprise his creation of Captain Jack Sparrow, will be Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Skyfall”), rising young stars Kaya Scodelario (“The Maze Runner,” British television’s “Skins”) and Brenton Thwaites (“Maleficent,” “The Giver”) and Golshifteh Farahani (“The Patience Stone,” “Exodus: Gods and Kings”). Rejoining the action are Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs and Stephen Graham as Scrum.

As for the story, this is what we’ve learned:

Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas

Okay. So it’s another McGuffin chase. It’s probably a good idea not to stray too far from the winning formula.

Pirates V will be directed by Espen Sandberg & Joachim Rønning (“Kon-Tiki”) and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Jeff Nathanson (“Catch Me If You Can,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”). The executive producers are Chad Oman, Joe Caracciolo, Jr. and Brigham Taylor.

Joining Bruckheimer, Sandberg & Rønning for the swashbuckling new voyage is a first-tier group of award-winning behind-the-scenes artists—many of them new to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” family—including director of photography Paul Cameron (“Gone in Sixty Seconds,” “Déjà Vu,” “Collateral”), production designer Nigel Phelps (“Pearl Harbor,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “World War Z”), costume designer Penny Rose (all four “Pirates of the Caribbean” films), visual effects supervisor Gary Brozenich (“The Lone Ranger,” “Edge of Tomorrow”), Oscar-winning special effects production consultant John Frazier (nine Jerry Bruckheimer films and dozens of others) and special effects supervisor Dan Oliver (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), supervising stunt coordinator R.A. Rondell (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1”) and stunt coordinators Thomas Robinson Harper (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) and Kyle Gardiner (“San Andreas,” “Kingsman: The Secret Service”), Academy Award-winning makeup and hair designer Peter Swords King (“The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies, “Into the Woods”) and film editors Joel Cox ( “Unforgiven,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “American Sniper”) and Gary D. Roach (“American Sniper”).

The film is expected to open in North America on July 7, 2017.