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Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. His 1988 novel, On Stranger Tides, was optioned for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Most of Powers's novels are "secret histories": he uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations and actions of the characters.

BiographyEdit

Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in California, where his Roman Catholic family moved in 1959.

He studied English Literature at Cal State Fullerton, where he first met James Blaylock and K. W. Jeter, both of whom remained close friends and occasional collaborators; the trio have half-seriously referred to themselves as "steampunks" in contrast to the prevailing cyberpunk genre of the 1980s. Powers and Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless while they were at Cal State Fullerton. Powers's first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark (1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates, which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages.

On September 11, 2009, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the franchise, was announced at the D23 Expo.^[1] After the title was announced, those familiar with Tim Powers' novel of the same name, suspected there was a connection. On October 2009, Powers was able to confirm that in 2006 or 2007, Disney had optioned his book.^[2] "I was very pleased in 2006 when my agent told me that Disney had approached us wanting to option my book for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie," Powers says. "And then for three years I kind of just watched Google News hoping that it would happen."^[3] Despite being confirmed that the film would be based upon the novel, Powers wasn't sure how close the film's plot would relate to it.

"I've watched all the movies several times, of course, and I think the clear thing they would use is the trip to the Fountain of Youth," Powers said. "My main character doesn't overlap with Jack Sparrow at all [in personality or circumstance]; they're totally different characters. I suppose they might overlap the Geoffrey Rush character Barbossa and Blackbeard. The only thing I feel certain they will hold on to is the Fountain of Youth since they telegraphed that at the end of the last movie."

When Powers went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in its world premiere, he liked the film.^[4]

External linksEdit

• Tim Powers on Wikipedia
• Tim Powers interview on Pirates 4

Notes and referencesEdit