Johnny Depp will return as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, due for release in the summer of 2011, Disney confirmed at the D23 Expo in Anaheim on Friday.
Disney also revealed that Depp would be playing Tonto in a big screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger, and confirmed that Tim Burton will be making a big budget, full length version of his infamous early short film Frankenweenie, about a Frankenstein mutt.
Details were also announced of Disney's new partnership with Guillermo del Toro to launch a new brand - Disney Double Dare. This will produce adult-orientated animated films. Del Toro will produce all of the pics the new label makes and will also step in to direct several of the titles.
"As a director, I love to take audiences into fantastic new worlds and provide them with some anxious moments in the process," says del Toro. "It is part of the Disney canon to create thrilling, unforgettable moments and villains in all their classic films. The emphasis is on fun, and we have some great ideas already on the storyboards.”
The first Double Dare project will be Trollhunters, based on an original story by del Toro. The Double Dare films will all be tied together by "one feature that shall remain secret, but that you shall soon be very familiar with," teased del Toro.
