Something that has remained consistent with Ridley Scott is that he’s always got multiple projects in the pipeline. Even now at the age of 89, this hasn’t changed. While The Dog Stars is next from him in August, after that is an adaptation of Treasure Island starring Hugh Jackman that has just found a home at Sony Pictures.
Scott began teasing Treasure Island a few weeks ago, around the time that 20th Century Studios, which is distributing The Dog Stars, passed on it. The film is based on a script by Jack Thorne, who adapted the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel. Thorne is hot right now for a lot of reasons, but recently for the Enola Holmes trilogy, the series Adolescence, and his new take on Lord of the Flies, all with Netflix.
Published in 1883 but set in the 18th century, Treasure Island follows Jim Hawkins, who finds a treasure map and joins a ship’s crew to seek out lost treasure. Along the way he’ll encounter the infamous pirate Long John Silver, witness a mutiny, and attempt to survive being stranded on a deserted tropical island.
Jackman is expected to play the dread pirate, Blackbeard, interesting as his take on the character in Joe Wright’s Pan was pretty divisive.
This is quite a gamble, I think. Scott’s films are almost always very expensive, and audiences had begun to grow tired of Pirates of the Caribbean. Speaking of which, Scott will need to rush to get this made before Disney drops the next sequel in that long-running franchise. [Deadline]
