Pirates (1986 film)

Pirates
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roman Polanski
Written by	Gérard Brach John Brownjohn Roman Polanski
Produced by	Tarak Ben Ammar
Starring	Walter Matthau Cris Campion Damien Thomas
Cinematography	Witold Sobocinski
Edited by	Hervé de Luze William Reynolds
Music by	Philippe Sarde
Production companies	Cathargo Films Accent-Cominco
Distributed by	Cannon Film Distributing (US)
Release date	8 May 1986 (1986-05-08) (Cannes)
Running time	112 minutes[1]
Countries	France Tunisia Poland
Languages	English French Spanish
Budget	$40 million[2][3]
Box office	$1,641,825 (US)[2] $6,341,825 (Worldwide)[3]

Pirates is a 1986 adventure comedy film written by Gérard Brach, John Brownjohn and Roman Polanski, and directed by Polanski. It was inspired by Polanski's love of classic pirate films, as well as Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Polanski began planning the film in 1976 as a follow-up to Chinatown, but production was delayed several times due to lack of funding and Polanski's fleeing the United States to avoid sentencing for his confessed rape of a minor.

It was screened out of competition at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival,^[4] and was a box-office bomb, although the costume design was nominated for an Academy Award.