Earlier today, mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer shared an early gift on Twitter: a new teaser poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

The movie, which is the fourth in the juggernaut Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, is set for release on May 20, 2011. It reunites Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) as they attempt to find the fabled Fountain of Youth that was teased at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

They’ll be joined by newcomer Penelope Cruz, who plays a woman from Sparrow’s past who might just be trying to use him to get to the Fountain. Eventually she forces him onto the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a ship Captained by the infamous Blackbeard (Ian McShane), putting Sparrow yet again into a tricky and dangerous situation.

Be sure to head on over to the other side to check out the curious new teaser poster now!

It has been just a few days since we officially learned that some major issues were happening within the production of Spider-Man 4 (which they’re apparently presenting as SPIDER-M4N; this needs to be stopped immediately), and that the movie would be on hold indefinitely until script and character differences were fixed.

Well, it didn’t take long for other gigantic Summer 2011 titles to swarm the vacated premium real estate: Box Office Mojo has made the changes that reveal that the other Marvel powerhouse in Kenneth Branagh‘s Thor has moved up from May 20, 2011 to Spidey 4‘s empty May 6, 2011 spot. At the very same time, the fourth film in another gold mine franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, swooped into the now-open May 20 spot left by Thor. At the the time of the latter move, Pirates 4 had yet to settle into a specific date, having only declared a Summer 2011 release.

The move for Thor is not a huge one, but this will likely make it the first biggie of the Summer season, and if a leaked X-Men Origins: Wolverine can make $85 Million as an opener, then Thor should set the bar in hard to reach places. Along with with the addition of Pirates of the Caribbean 4, May just may just already be the biggest month of 2011.

If you visit the site everyday (or any movie site, for that matter), you know that recently there was a massive shower of Disney-related news announced at their D23 Expo — most of which were revealed by Disney Chairman, Dick Cook. Most of the news was very exciting, including big news about a Muppet takeover, information on big Pixar sequels Toy Story 3 and Cars 2, and the official title for the fourth movie in their Pirates franchise: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

After this Christmas morning of announcements, the last thing you would expect to top it all off would be bad news, but that’s just what we’ve been given. It’s being reported by Nikki Finke that after 38 years of service, and an impressively popular reputation, Chairman Dick Cook has now been fired by Disney President and CEO Bob Iger. There are reports that the two weren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye, as well.

It was initially reported that he had innocently just “stepped down” from his position, which Disney is standing by, even though Finke has multiple updates on her report that quote various Disney insiders who are saying that it was a firing, and not one that is being taken lightly. People that have worked with him are crushed by this news, and that it reminds them of when former Disney topper Michael Eisner fired Jeffrey Katzenberg. Even worse, they’re wondering who they could possibly replace him with, saying “I don’t know who Iger thinks he can find who’ll be able to come in there and already have relations with Spielberg, and Zemeckis, and Bruckheimer, and Lasseter, and Burton, like this guy had,” which is accompanied by rumors that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige “impressed the hell out of” Iger while the Marvel deal was being worked out…so take that as you will.

Click over for more, including the possible fate of Pirates of the Caribbean straight from the mouth of Johnny Depp, and the official statements from both Cook and Iger.

Disney has been making some big announcements lately: their acquisition of Marvel Studios; a partnership with the great Guillermo del Toro; the motion capture remake of Yellow Submarine; and now this, the officially announcement of the title for Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

The fourth movie in one of the biggest movie franchises of all time will now be called Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (click image for full title graphic). The flick is locked and loaded with crucial Johnny Depp set to return as Jack Sparrow. To lower the budget a bit, both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley will not be returning, unless they appear in small cameos.

Also expected to return is Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa, but this is not confirmed yet. The high hopes is that the Fountain of Youth storyline set up at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will be used here. It also appears that there is a book titled On Stranger Tides that does involve the Fountain, so questions have also arisen as to if this will be the source material for the fourth film.

No official word on the premise of Pirates 4 has been shared, but you can check out the synopsis for this book and its mention of said Fountain of Youth on the other side.

Coming Soon was able to grab Disney’s Head of Production Oren Aviv at San Diego Comic Con 2009 and ask him a few questions. One of the juicy bits that they were able to abstract from the Disney head had to do with the next chapter in one of the biggest franchises ever: Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

Aviv confirmed that they were indeed still all about making another Pirates movie, and that they actually wanted to start shooting it next Spring for a 2011 release. Since the final movie of the trilogy, At World’s End, had come and gone, we all knew another flick would be coming. Judging by the last images we saw, it was expected to focus of course on Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) going after the legendary Fountain of Youth. It was also expected that stars like Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom would be left out of the project to save money — a move that would probably help the franchise overall.