When you’re thinking about remaking a classic like the swashbuckling Errol Flynn pirate pic, Captain Blood, what do you do? Do you treat it with reverence or go in a completely different direction? Well Warner, which was previously going for the former, has done a u-turn and decided the latter is the best option, as they’ve signed up Michael and Peter Spierig (Undead, Daybreakers) to direct and John Brownlow (Sylvia) to write a new version of the movie, after they were impressed by their pitch which will move the swashbuckling action into space.
Despite the sci-fi angle, producer Bill Gerber has promised that the film would be fairly faithful to the plot of the original, in which doctor, Peter Blood, joins up with a French pirate, only to clash with a buccaneer when the bad guy captures the woman he loves. “There are some things you don’t mess with, and that is as classic a movie storyline as you will ever find,” Gerber said.
This would seem to put to rest the more faithful version of Captain Blood that Brownlow was previously writing as a possible vehicle for Philip Noyce to direct. You can see why Warner might like this new take on the classic, as Pirates are still popular following the Captain Jack movies, and the upcoming Avatar has already got studios slavering over anything and everything set in space, however the last time pirates headed for the stars, in Disney’s Treasure Planet, it turned out to be a stinker. That’s not to say this couldn’t work, though.
There’s no news yet on when they’re hoping to get the film into cinemas.