We’ve known since February that Penélope Cruz was looking to come aboard “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” the fourth installment of Johnny Depp’s swashbuckling adventure stories. Yet until now, her exact role has remained unclear. MTV News has exclusively learned that Cruz will play the daughter of Depp’s nemesis. “She plays the daughter of Blackbeard,” executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer told MTV News at ShoWest in Las Vegas. “She’s the daughter of the bad guy. She brings a lot of humor to it. And the fact that she’s so feisty,” he continued, adding that there will be “a little romance between [Depp’s] Captain Jack and the character that Penelope plays.”

Ian McShane is to set to play Blackbeard, the main adversary to Captain Jack Sparrow. As Bruckheimer put it, Blackbeard is “the nastiest pirate ever.” Geoffrey Rush, who has played Barbossa in the three previous “Pirates” films, told MTV News in September that he expected to reprise his role in “On Stranger Tides,” and Bruckheimer confirmed that will indeed be the case. Filming is slated to begin in June. New actors are in the process of being cast for certain roles, with testing currently in the works. As for the plot, we know the story will pick up where it ended in 2007’s “At World’s End”: with Sparrow’s search for the Fountain of Youth. Yet Bruckheimer promised a fresh approach to this familiar material. “We’re going to take a whole new direction,” he said.

For more (including video) go to http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1634348/story.jhtm

Caricature of Cruz at http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/2421433/21-Caricaturas-Famosas.html