The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who has been cited by Johnny Depp as inspiration for his out-there Pirates of the Caribbean character, Capt. Jack Sparrow, will make a cameo appearance in the third Pirates movie as Jack’s father.
The sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, opens July 7, while the final installment of the trilogy is due out in summer of 2007.
“As long as Keith doesn’t fall out of any more trees, it will be fine,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said of Richards’ role.
Richards suffered minor head injuries falling out of a tree earlier this year, but the ever-resilient icon is still expected to show up in August when Depp and co-stars Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom shoot the final scenes for the third Pirates.
“We’re saving Keith. He will be in the third film,” Gore Verbinski, the trilogy’s director, said.
Depp is looking forward to working with Richards (below).
“We’re friends. I thought about having Keith come on as my father when we did the first Pirates film. It would be fun and interesting. But I didn’t realize this could actually happen,” Depp told GLARE.
The actor also acknowledged that Capt. Jack Sparrow is, to a certain degree, an impression of Richards, 62.
“To me, it’s not Keith. It’s not me being Keith. It’s an impression of Keith, but not an impersonation,” said Depp, who added that he would love to do a fourth installment of Pirates if given the chance.
“There’s still stuff to be done. If they had a good script, why not? [Jack] is definitely part of me. It’s criminal fun to play him. When they came up with the idea of parts two and three, it was an opportunity to jump in these shoes again,” he said.