When writing the screenplay for The Curse of the Black Pearl, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio envisioned Jack Sparrow as a supporting character, citing Bugs Bunny and Groucho Marx as influences.[8] The producers saw him as a young Burt Lancaster.[2] Director Gore Verbinski admitted, "The first film was a movie, and then Jack was put into it almost. He doesn't have the obligations of the plot in the same ways that the other characters have. He meanders his way through, and he kind of affects everybody else."[9] Sparrow represents an ethical pirate, with Captain Barbossa as his corrupt foil.[8] His true motives usually remain masked, and whether he is honorable or evil depends on the audience's perspective.[10] This acts as part of Will Turner's arc, in which Sparrow tells him a pirate can be a good man, like his father
