The Associated Press is reporting that Russell Crowe is in talks to set sail again as Captain Jack Aubrey in a sequel to the hit 2003 mariner flick, Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World. Crowe has revealed that a script has already been written, largely based off the 11th book in Patrick O’Brien’s series, The Reverse Of The Medal, although it’s too early to tell whether a deal will come together or not.
The Reverse Of The Medal sees Aubrey captaining the HMS Surprise around the Caribbean, where he discovers his illegitimate son is now a catholic priest, before returning to London and ending up getting involved in the criminal underground. However by the sound of it, like the first film, it’ll take aspects of several different novels to make up the plot.
As it’s a largely land-based tale, it could probably be made for less than The Far Side Of The World, which cost $150 million to make but only took $212 million at the worldwide box office. While that film’s done well on DVD, it still didn’t make the kind of money that would normally call for an equally budgeted follow-up. Plus it’s also true that since its release in 2003, most people have forgotten about the The Far Side Of The World, so are people actually going to queue up for a sequel?