Disney reduces 'Pirates 4' budget

Disney has reduced the budget for Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, spending $100 million less than it did on 2007's At Worlds End.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed to the LA Times that Disney chairman Rich Ross wants the company to be "mean", "lean" and "cost effective".

Screenwriters Ted Eliott and Terry Rossio have been instructed to give Johnny Depp's character Jack Sparrow more scenes on land rather than at sea, because of the high cost of water scenes. Other changes include moving filming locations from LA and the Caribbean to Hawaii and London, and cutting back on shooting days and visual effects shots.

"The hard thing is you have to make painful decisions that cut into some very entertaining sequences," said Bruckheimer.

"You have to figure out how to keep the movie very entertaining and give the audience more than what they expect and yet be cost-effective about it."

However, he also insisted that the audience would not notice the cuts in the final product.

Shooting for the Rob Marshall-directed On Stranger Tides, which will star Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane and Penelope Cruz, starts in June.