The fifth movie in the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' franchise is set to release on May 26. For fans, it has been a six-year wait to see the continued adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, played by actor Johnny Depp. However, Disney is in the middle of discovering what it is like to be held captive by modern-day online pirates. The movie is being held hostage by ransom hackers seeking payment from the well-endowed studio.
What are the hackers demands?
The ransom hackers are demanding that Disney pays them a massive amount of money via the Bitcoin digital payment system.
They also threatened the studio, saying that if their demands were not met they would release small parts of the film over the coming days.
For their part, Disney has decided not to give in to any demands from these 'wannabe' cyber-pirates. The studio made no official statement regarding the news, but insiders have said that they will refuse to pay a single penny. They are now working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the matter.
This news that one of their upcoming movies was being held hostage by ransom hackers was revealed by Disney CEO Bob Iger during a town hall meeting with ABC employees in New York. Iger did not specify which movie it was but online magazine 'Deadline' learned that it was the fifth movie in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise.
Newcomers on board
The film has old faces reprising their roles besides Depp, like Kevin McNally (Joshamee Gibbs) and Geoffrey Rush (Hector Barbossa). It will also see Orlando Bloom (Will Turner) and Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Swann) back after neither appeared in the fourth movie.
The major newcomers to the series include Javier Bardem, who will be playing antagonist Captain Armando Salazar.
Playing a seemingly important role alongside protagonist Jack Sparrow will be newcomers Kaya Scodelario (Carina Smyth) and Brenton Thwaites (Henry Turner).
Disney's next billion dollar hit?
Could 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' be Disney's next billion dollar hit in 2017? Last month their live action remake 'Beauty and the Beast' became the latest Disney movie to cross that threshold.
Their last release, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' has made about $632 million worldwide since its release on May 5.
The first four installments in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise have made $3.72 billion worldwide. Two of those -- 'Dead Man's Chest' and 'On Stranger Tides', both crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide. It will be interesting to see how well the long-awaited fifth installment in the series does in the coming weeks.
