Penelope Cruz has enjoyed a long and fruitful cinematic relationship with filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, and the actress is looking to make “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” magic happen again with a role in Woody Allen’s next film. Now she aims to add another director -– and country –- to her resume of repeat collaborations.

Cruz, who gets her biggest Hollywood turn to date with a starring role opposite Johnny Depp in next month’s "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," is set to reunite with Italian director Sergio Castellitto. She'll star in his war tale “Venuto al Mondo," and while there have been reports for more than a year of her involvement, Cruz says the movie is now a priority and that she hopes to make it one of her next projects.

In 2004, the Spanish actress starred in Castellitto’s melodrama “Don’t Move." In the auteur's new film, she'll play a single mother who brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where the boy’s father died during the Balkan War. The film is based on an Italian bestseller.

The part is a switch for Cruz, who has until now mostly been sliding between Hollywood- and Spain-based movies. “I like that it’s a movie that’s not Spanish or English,” she told 24 Frames. "I love this part of the job that lets you become someone else with a different nationality.” She paused, “I guess I have to start studying Italian again.”

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--Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Penelope Cruz receives her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this month. Credit: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

From the moment Disney began contemplating a fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean,” there was a lot of talk about how the movie would scale down in budget and scope.

Judging by the trailer, Rob Marshall's "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," which opens May 20, managed to do that without changing much about the big action sequences for which the franchise is known.

Unfortunately, Marshall doesn’t seem to have changed much else either. This time Jack Sparrow has a new quest searching for the fountain of youth, but it’s all in a very familiar context. Sparrow gets mouthy. Blackbeard swears vengeance. There’s swashbuckling, and supernatural elements, and nautical set pieces. Marshall has retained the spirit of Gore Verbinski, who directed the first three films, but without offering much reason for why there needed to be a new movie in the first place.

Should the Johnny Depp franchise have been retired after the last film, “At World’s End”? Jerry Bruckheimer has said he originally conceived ”Pirates” as a trilogy. He and Disney obviously changed their tune, but much of what’s here still just seems like the new packaging of old plotlines. The few changes that are attempted, such as swapping in Penelope Cruz for Keira Knightley, feel unconvincing. “Steady as she goes,” her character says. Too steady.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

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