According to The Daily Mail, Johnny Depp will be paid £32,000,000 (about $56 million) for the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean 4. This would make Depp the highest paid actor in film history.

Tom Hanks supposedly made an estimated $50 million for the Da Vinci Code follow-up Angels & Demons. Keanu Reeves holds the record of the highest paid actor of all time after the fact. Reeves made $20 million plus 15% of the gross for the two Matrix sequels, which equals out to an estimated $194 million (or $97 million a film).

But Depp is the franchise. Like Harrison Ford with Indiana Jones, this isn’t a film series where the actor is interchangeable to the character and Disney is smart enough to realize that.

However, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom would not be back for the sequel but there are talks of Captain Jack having a brother in the next movie, possibly to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen or Russell Brand. Also, the new movie might kick off a trilogy, which would revolve around Captain Jack’s search for the Fountain of Youth.

Geoffrey Rush and director Gore Verbinski are apparently both planning to return, but Tim Burton might direct instead : he might have the ability to make the new franchise as fresh and exciting as it was when the first movie came out.

The first three Pirates of the Caribbean films grossed over $2.68 billion worldwide. By that reckoning, $56 million for Depp would be a bargain, as another film is essentially like printing money !

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is currently aiming for a May 2011 release.