Disney is taking some heat over a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, in which Johnny Depp's swashbuckling Capt Jack Sparrow gets roasted on a spit. The first of two sequels to the original Pirates is now filming back-to-back on location in Dominica and other Caribbean islands, writes Michael Dwyer

On Dominica, Chief Charles Williams, leader of the 3,500-strong Carib people, is calling on tribe members to boycott the production because it perpetuates the myth that their ancestors ate people.

"Pirates did come to the Caribbean in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries," Williams says, "and our ancestors were labelled cannibals. Today, that myth, that stigma is still alive. Today, Disney wants to popularise that stigma one more time, this time through film, and film is a powerful tool of propaganda."

In the controversial scene, Jack is captured by natives, hog-tied and generously sprinkled with fruits and vegetables in "a human shish kebab" as Disney production executive Bruce Hendricks puts it. "It's a funny, almost campy sequence," he says. "There are a lot of silly moments in it." He also points out that the film does not mention Domincia or the Caribs by name, and that the scenes are set on a fictional island named Pelegosto.