I was in the movie theatre not long ago and a preview for the latest Pirates of the Carribean movie started playing.
Protagonist named Jack, zombies, Blackbeard and the fountain of youth. Sounded very familiar.
I'm a huge fan of a not terribly well known author named Tim Powers. He wrote a wonderful little Carribean adventure story with a protagonist named Jack, zombies, Blackbeard and the fountain of youth. It's called "On Stranger Tides" It's currently only found in used bookstores and Amazon. ( click Mata's link )
So I wondered and turns out I'm right.
http://www.thedamnedinterviews.com/2011/03...hor-tim-powers/ for an author interview.

Looking forward to the movie. How do other people like the franchise?

Are there any books you'd like to see made into a film?

Here's the UK link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1848875...ASIN=1848875126

US link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006209453...ASIN=006209453X

It wouldn't be the first time the Pirates series have liberally pillaged other media for their ideas: the first two films bear an uncanny resemblance to the plots of the Monkey Island games.

It's looking reasonably likely that the Neuromancer film is dead in the water again, judging by the IMDB page, which I'm quite grateful for. I'd still love to see a decent version of the novel, but it would need about 2.5 hours and a very dedicated team to make it anything like the novel. As I get older, I think I get closer to the point where I could make it work, but that's a different tangent.

I'd love to see Luke Rhinehart's The Dice Man done well as a movie but, like Neuromancer, I suspect that it may be almost unfilmable due to the way the story lurches around occasionally.

I suspect that there are some great movies in the vampire novels of Poppy Z. Brite, but to get them right the public would have to accept a very gay set of vamps. I just don't know if the Hollywood studio system is ready for that yet.