Look, if you're a regular reader of JHM, I'm just going to assume that you already know what this is a picture of.
That was a brilliantly staged gag, don't you think ? A bit of business that harkens back to the sort of things that used to do.
It actually started out as a series of storyboard sketches. A sequence of rough drawings that then gave the "Pirates" production team some sense of what director was really going for.
This handsome 160-page paperback is basically an all-access pass to the production of "Black Pearl," " 
" Singer seems to take his readers everywhere and show them everything. Take -- for example -- Soundstage 2 on the Disney lot when "Dead Man's Chest" was being shot. Which was flooded with 500,000 gallons of water in order to create the creepy backwater swamp where Tia Dalma's shack is located.
Michael also brings his readers along to an enormous airplane hanger in Palmdale, CA. Where huge gimbals have been set up in front of walls that are covered in blue screen material. Which then allows the actors who are playing the respective crews of the Black Pearl the Flying Dutchman to then simulate what it would be like to have an epic sea battle while your vessel is circling around the mouth of an enormous whirlpool.
But it's not just the big stuff -- the huge sets, the ornate costumes and elaborate special effects -- that Michael chronicles. He also captures the smaller, sillier moments that occurred during the "Pirates" shoot. Like when Kiera Knightley burst out laughing during what was supposed to have been the saddest moment in "Dead Man's Chest" (I.
E. Elizabeth Will's interrupted wedding). All because Kiera wasn't quite ready to have icy cold water raining down on her.
But you know what Singer does best ? He really gives you a sense of how hard the "Pirates of the Caribbean" production team worked to make sure that this trio of films were always at least as entertaining as the that inspired them.
And the group that Gore Verbinski assembled ?
They never settled for just a good idea. Following Walt Disney's example, these people would take something good and then plus it plus it 'til they finally had something great.
Which sometimes involved folding clever little nods winks into these films.
Take -- for example -- the picture below. Look who turns up in "At World's End" 's Pirate Lords sequence. No, I'm not talking about Keith Richards.
Check out the dog with the keys from the "Pirates" theme park attraction !
But if I had to pick out my favorite part of "Bring Me That Horizon," it would probably be that passage where Singer describes the day that dropped by the "Dead Man's Chest" set. And virtually the entire "Pirates" production stopped what they were doing just so they could then come pay tribute to the Imagineer who had helped create the theme park ride that had helped inspire this acclaimed trio of movies.
Disney Legend X. Atencio and Johnny Depp -- Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved
It's in this part of the book that Michael's affection admiration for both these films the people who made them really comes through.
It's at that moment that you realize that being able to visit the sets of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films must have been a very special experience.
Well, given that none of us will ever get the chance to do that (Unless -- of course -- Disney actually does go forward with production of "Pirates 4"), I guess we'll just have to settle for "Bring Me That Horizon : The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean." This treasure trove of a book that really is the next best thing to having an all-access pass to these three Walt Disney Pictures productions.
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