jun 28, 2015 - DAILY TELEGRAPH Pirates of the Caribbean curse won’t cripple Australian film industry

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N.B. This is Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer on PR damage control after Amber Heard’s comments about Johnny Depp and herself avoiding Australia in the future. They would not have been pleased with her.

IT’S been cursed by pitfalls that would rival any of its swashbuckling plot lines.
But even with the extended loss of its star Johnny Depp, the huge controversy surrounding his two pooches and threats to boycott Oz, reps for the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean instalment say the experience has not scared them off filming in Australia.

The assistant to the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer, publicist Michael Singer, this week admitted aspects of the filming of the latest Pirates flick had been “challenging”, fuelled by a raging media interest in the shoot.

But Singer denied Hollywood studios would be scared off, describing local film crews as “the best in the world”.

“I don’t think it has been detrimental at all ... if anything I think this experience has shone a light on just how great Australian film crews are,” said Singer.

“Their work ethic is tremendous.’’

Singer also denied an allegation that he had been overheard on set describing the shoot as “the longest of my career”.

“If I said anything like that, it would have been strictly in jest.”

Despite the united front, however, the Pirates shoot has suffered a series of off-screen mishaps since filming began six months ago — none bigger than the now-infamous uproar over Depp’s two Yorkshire terriers which were brought into the country on a private jet back in May.

Since then Depp’s wife Amber Heard has stated publicly that she and her superstar husband were ­unlikely to ever return to Australia — a sentiment Depp allegedly ­echoed on set last week while interacting with fans.

Addressing two women who ­arrived at the Hastings Point set on horseback, Depp was overheard telling them that “you’re lucky they’re not dogs or you’d be kicked out of the country”.

Singer declined to comment on the outburst. Depp was last week hard at work on the Gold Coast, spending as much as 15 hours on set during Tuesday’s shoot.

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