Blackbeard Movie to Set Sail

Prior to July 2003 it was thought that water-based movies and pirate movies in particular were a bad idea. There be great fortunes to lose on the open seas, or so it was believed.

Now, we know different. Now we know that if you put an unknown hot British actress and a great actor whose combined box office take in 20 years was roughly $150 million, you've got a hit! Actually, what we know is that the pirate movie could be salvaged if you do it right.

Variety reports that Dreamworks is set to bring the life story (or at least the legend of the life story) of Blackbeard to the big screen. Blackbeard was arguably the most notorious pirate of all time, so if you're going to revisit a pirate's life, this is probably the best place to go. David Franzoni, who wrote scripts for Amistad and Gladiator, will crank out the screenplay, and the project is being co-produced by Pat Croce, who I remembered as the frenetic team president of the Philadelphia 76ers during their Allen Iverson-led run of the late 1990s. Turns out Croce, who now spends most of his time on the speaking circuit, is something of a Pirate nut. He's written a sort of history book on seafaring marauders called Pirate Soul and even a children's book, My Pop-Pop is a Pirate. I can't believe I just wrote those words. Anyway, Croce worked on the original treatment of the Blackbeard film - perhaps at his pirate museum in Florida - and then sent it along to Barry Josephson, his co-producer. The right move in all of this is hiring a guy like Franzoni, who knows how to turn a script into a giant event, which is what this movie needs to be. I mean, you'd rather move ahead with a screenplay from the guy who wrote Gladiator and even King Arthur than the guy who used to run a basketball franchise and has a jones for pirates. It'll be interesting to see how it plays, though. Clearly, casting is priority one at this point, then grabbing a quality director. If I had to take a guess, just based on the picture, I'd say I hope Rob Zombie is available.

Comments

[Miss Cellania]

This movie will have some big shoes to fill. Pirates of the Caribbean would've only been a mediocre movie if it had been filmed the way Disney planned. It was the humor that made it a gem.