“Tower Heist” scribe Jeff Nathanson has been tapped to write Disney’s fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, says Variety.

With Johnny Depp and a barrage of special effects set to return it doesn’t much matter who pens the libretto of the thing but still, they can’t do better than the writer of “Rush Hour 3″, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Speed 2 : Cruise Control”? (To Nathanson’s merit, he did write “The Terminal” and “Catch Me if You Can”, suggesting Tom Hanks should probably be involved in every project he does if they’ve any chance of turning out reasonable). Guess with the money they’re likely to spend on those makeshift pirate ships they want to save a penny.. somewhere.

Jerry Bruckheimer returns to produce “Pirates of the Caribbean 5″.