While Marshall's involvement wasn't confirmed over the weekend, things look good enough that the studio is said to have begun casting new characters that will appear in the picture.

Gore Verbinski, who helmed the first three films in the series, had stepped away from the fourth installment to focus on a movie version of the vidgame "BioShock" for Universal. Though that film's momentum has stalled, Verbinski has moved on to other directing and producing projects.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have been meeting with a number of directors in recent weeks, because the studio wants to pull the "Pirates" film together and have Depp star in it before he does "The Lone Ranger" for them.