It's just been announced that Brian Blessed will be playing a villain in the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean. Blessed is no stranger to the pirate theme, he's done loads of Peter Pan panto as Hook in the last decade.

The third film in the newer franchise is titled "At World's End" and will have Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) traveling off the edge of the map to find Captain Jack Sparrow.
AWE (hehe) will also star the regulars, Chow Yun Fat (yay!) as Captain Sao Feng, and Star Wars alum Greg Ellis as Lieutenant Groves, it is his first appearance in the films, though he'd done voice work for the video game Pirates of the Caribbean: Legend of Jack Sparrow.

AWE comes out on May 27, 2007. A sure side treat for anyone at CIV.

EDIT:

Brian Blessed Going to Mars? - Check it out, his adventurous spirit does not stop with the Earth's tallest mountain.