Avast ye, scurvy dogs! There be some piratical news we be needin' to tell ye, so listen up an' listen up' real well, arrr-ight? *Cough* Ahem, er, so
Avast ye, scurvy dogs! There be some piratical news we be needin’ to tell ye, so listen up an’ listen up’ real well, arrr-ight? *Cough* Ahem, er, sorry, we don’t quite know what got into us there. Oh yeah, actually, we do! Per Deadline‘s reporting, Sir Ridley Scott is getting ready to direct a novel adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella Treasure Island. And what’s more, not only has Adolescence and Lord Of The Flies scribe Jack Thorne written the script, but the film has also already found its Long John Silver: Hugh Jackman!
While there are some iconic Treasure Island adaptations out there — Muppet Treasure Island, Treasure Planet, that 1990 one with Christian Bale and Charlton Heston, we’re thinking of you (Elijah Wood circumscribed series Treasure Island, not so much) — it has been a very long time now since we last saw juvenile Jim Hawkins embark on a swashbuckling, pirate-infested treasure hunt across the high seas on the huge screen. And with Sir Ridders sizzling off the set of the very promising looking The Dog Stars, Hugh Jackman — whose Blackbeard in the much-maligned Pan was proof he can cut it as a villainous pirate — on to tussle with Master Hawkins as Long John Silver, and world’s-busiest-writer Thorne handling the screenplay, it’s not surprising to learn that all of the major Hollywood studios are vying to make this Treasure Island theirs. (Well, with the exception of Disney that is, who Deadline‘s sources note are still all hands on deck working to get a long-mooted Pirates Of The Caribbean reboot off the ground.)
Outside of who’s calling the shots, who’s penning the screenplay, and who’s taking on the iconic role of Long John Silver, we really don’t know anything else about Scott and co’s Treasure Island just yet — save for the fact it is being described as ‘a novel take’ on Robert Louis Stevenson’s perennial classic. But suffice it to say, even with nothing else to go on as of yet, there’s more than enough in today’s news to suggest there’s cinematic gold here just waiting to be unearthed. Here’s just hoping Sir Ridley Scott doesn’t fill his take on the story with too many pirates. Why? Because then it’d have to be Arrrr-rated, of course. (We’ll see ourselves out…)
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