Bruckheimer: When we previewed the movie, maybe three people were left in the theater at the end. I may exaggerate, but there were a lot of walkouts. When you watch a movie with an audience, they tell you what they like and don't like. You feel it, you sense it. When they start twitching, you know something's wrong, but it's usually not wrong at that exact moment. Usually something has already gone wrong. So you have to try to have clarity, to make sure people understand what's going on. The first Pirates of the Caribbean is a good example. We had a shot of a monkey shrieking in one sequence, and everybody said, "You've got to take it out. It'll disturb kids and everybody else." Instead we put it at the end of the movie, and kids kept going back to the theaters just to see the monkey because they missed it the first time.

Playboy: Did the success of the first Pirates make things any easier for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest?

Bruckheimer: Quite the opposite. It was difficult. In this one Captain Jack Sparrow owes Davy Jones his soul. They made a deal that if Jack got the ship The Black Pearl, he'd have to pay Jones back, which he doesn't want to do. It's very intricate and unique, and it has an interesting ending that leads to another adventure. It's a big, ambitious movie with a lot of pirates, huge sets, part-human sea creatures and much commotion. The more wheels you have, the more a little spoke can come loose. Also, I approached it as if we were doing a trilogy, making a second and third Pirates together. We've got the majority of the third movie finished--most of the big stuff--and we're going back to complete it in August.

Playboy: Depp's performance in the first Pirates earned him an Oscar nomination. Is his performance in the new one any different?

Bruckheimer: He's just a great actor and always finds something interesting and different to do. He doesn't deviate from the character you see in the first film, but there's more depth here. You find out more about him. He's placed in more difficult situations than in the first movie, and he has to finesse his way out of them.

Playboy: What do you make of George Lucas's recent quote that the blockbuster is dead and that the average movie budget will be only $15 million by 2025?

Bruckheimer: It would be great for the studios if that were true. I'm sure they'd love that. Not to disagree with someone as incredibly smart and talented as George, but I think the blockbuster will still be around. After all, with 35,000 screens in North America, you have to fill them with something. Budgets are going up rather than down.

Playboy: It's become a hot Hollywood trend for producers and others to wager big money in Vegas on how huge an opening weekend their movies will have and how much money they'll eventually gross. Are you betting on Pirates?

Bruckheimer: I don't bet on things. It's boring to me. I have to go to Las Vegas about once a year, but other than that, it's not for me.

Playboy: Michael Bay, who directed Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, compared your producing style to water torture. Are you a my-way-or-the-highway type?

Bruckheimer: Never, never, never. I'm persistent. With Michael or any director, we sit down and talk about things, and if I can convince him I'm right, I'm fine. But really, the best argument wins.

Playboy: Will you admit to having any professional regrets or making any miscalculations? Do you have pangs about having passed on producing The Silence of the Lambs, for instance?

Bruckheimer: Well, when we were offered it, for a moment, but I wasn't eager to live with that story for a year or more. I don't remember what else I made around that time that was very dark, but that film is a very dark tale, and I know what it's like to live that life.

Playboy: What was it like for you growing up? Was it dark?

Bruckheimer: I lived on the outskirts of Detroit in a nice two-bedroom brick house. If you saw 8 Mile, I lived three blocks from Eight Mile, inside the city. Both my parents were from Germany. There was never a radio on. TV maybe at night. It was very quiet. I was the only child. My mother waited a long time to have a child--she must have been in her 40s--and that decision was based on finances. She was so penurious, she thought they didn't have enough money to have more children. She said my dad never made any money, so she saved every nickel and gave him a dollar a week to buy cigars. My mother, who is still alive, is a great conversationalist. So was my dad. He'd come home and read the newspaper; they'd talk about his day at work, current affairs, politics, family. I would say we were lower-middle-class. My dad for many years was a manager of a very exclusive clothing store in downtown Detroit.

Playboy: Did your father suit up the notorious killers known as the Purple Gang, who were so tough they basically warned Al Capone, "Hands off Detroit"?

Bruckheimer: They would come into the store, and my father was the salesman who took care of their needs in suits and hats, working with the tailor. It's been written over the years that he was a tailor, but that isn't true. He was fairly well-known by many of the more elegant gentlemen of Detroit. Later he sold more working-class kinds of clothing.

Playboy: Who were you in school, the brain, the science guy, the all-arounder or a variation?

Bruckheimer: I always had a good clique of friends who used to come to my house and hang out.Though I wasn't a good athlete, I was into athletics, and we'd play basketball or hockey. Reading for me was very difficult because I'm slightly dyslexic. I was always in the slowest reading group. Even in second- or third-grade reading groups, it was very difficult for me. In those days dyslexia was unknown, so teachers just thought I wasn't very bright because I had such a hard time. It was always painful for me to read in public. Reading was never something I gravitated toward until much later.