Most recently, Nathanson was one of four credited writers on Tower Heist, his fourth collaboration with director Brett Ratner after having written both Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3, as well as Ratner's segment of New York, I Love You.  As a screenwriter, Nathanson is responsible for Steven Spielberg's excellent Catch Me If You Can, and he also contributed to the director's The Terminal and even Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  His biggest "What the hell?" credit, though, is Speed 2: Cruise Control, which he co-wrote.  Additionally, he wrote and directed the 2004 comedy The Last Shot.

According to Variety, Disney and returning producer Jerry Bruckheimer have selected Nathanson to write the continuing adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Months before Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides even arrived in theaters, Terry Rossio was hired to pen the fifth installment.  It's unknown at this point whether Nathanson will be working from previous drafts by Rossio or starting from scratch.  With his writing and partner Ted Elliott, Rossio wrote all four previous entries in the franchise.  The duo also wrote early drafts of The Lone Ranger, this summer's reteaming of Bruckheimer, Depp, and Gore Verbinski, the director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Verbinski opted not to return for On Stranger Tides, which also did away with the characters played by Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.  Director Rob Marshall took Verbinski's place, and every indication so far has been that both he and Disney are keen to make Pirates of the Caribbean 5 a Rob Marshall film.  Marshall and Depp were set to team up again for a remake of The Thin Man for Warner Bros., but the studio pumped the brakes on that one last June.

So there's no doubt that we'll again see Jack Sparrow lizard-walking his way through yet-another Caribbean misadventure, and Jeff Nathanson might just be the screenwriter to make it happen.