STARZ recently closed up shop on their Spartacus TV series, leaving a big, gaping, bloody wound in their programming. However, bloodthirsty fans may have a worthy contender to fill in the gap with the upcoming original series Black Sails, a prequel show to author Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. The show takes place twenty years before the events in the classic novel, focusing on Captain Flint and his men traversing the seas and causing all manner of pirate mischief. Today, we have the first trailer for the show, which doesn’t debut until next year. Created by Jon Steinberg and Robert Levin, the series is being produced by Michael Bay in his first solo TV venture.
Set sail!:
Here’s the synopsis (from Deadline):
The eight-episode drama takes place twenty years before the events in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and chronicles the tales of Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his men, including young John Silver (Luke Arnold). Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers.
I like the idea of tying the show to Treasure Island and it’s a smart move, really, since the book is required reading in schools all over the world. Pirates are certainly in vogue, along with fan favorites zombies and ninjas, but can they sustain a TV show? I guess we’ll find out next year.
Starring Zack McGowan, Hannah New and Jessica Parker Kennedy, Black Sails will debut on STARZ sometime in 2014. Bay’s next film, PAIN AND GAIN hits theaters on April 26, 2013 and will follow that up with TRANSFORMERS 4, set for June 27, 2014.
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