Pirates of the Caribbean news: Keira Knightley assumed movie would be 'a DISASTER'

Curtis worked with the British star on Love Actually before her role in the swashbuckling adventure was unleashed on the world.

Now, writing for Radio Times, he’s revealed that she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it at the time.

Writing about the follow-up, Red Nose Day Actually, he said: “Many things have stayed the same, many things have changed. It’s been a particular delight to me how brilliantly the cast have done over the years. 

“When we shot the film, I remember Keira Knightley saying that her next project was ‘some pirate thing – probably a disaster’. 

“That turned out to be Pirates of the Caribbean, in which Bill Nighy was also later a be-tentacled Davy Jones. 

“Andrew Lincoln had never come across, let alone killed, the Walking Dead. Chiwetel Ejiofor hadn’t been a slave for five minutes, let alone 12 years…”

Pirates of the Caribbean went on to become a hugely lucrative franchise, and the fifth film – Dead Men Tell No Tales – is due in 2017.

Knightley stayed on board for the first three movies, opting out ahead of 2011’s On Stranger Tides.