With the technical problems solved, the next step was naturally casting. Li Wei could not be bothered to make things complicated, so he went straight to the Eye of the Goddess Troupe and asked them to work with him on the production and select actors for the principal roles.
Will and Elizabeth were fairly conventional characters, while Barbossa and William Jones were classic villains. Only Captain Jack would be difficult to portray with the right flavor, but Li Wei was not too concerned. If all else failed, he had his own solution.
With an invitation from Li Wei and the Queen's approval behind the project, the Eye of the Goddess Troupe naturally gave it their utmost attention. As the project director, Li Wei began arranging auditions.
All the actors present received scripts. Li Wei was not worried about the script leaking; movies were primarily a visual feast, especially commercial films like Pirates of the Caribbean. While the plot was not irrelevant, it was not quite that important either. Even if someone read the script and knew the story, what appeared on film would certainly be completely different from what they imagined.
Still, just in case, Li Wei only gave each person the opening portion rather than the complete script.
He had to take at least a few precautions.
The auditions took place at the Eye of the Goddess Troupe's Second Stage. Rather than having people perform alone in an office, as was customary in later times, Li Wei had all the troupe's actors watch from the audience. After all, this would be the world's first movie. Everyone here was a seasoned performer, and some had even been acting since birth, but Li Wei needed them to understand that theater and film were different, even if both involved acting.
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