The upcoming period pirate drama from executive producer Michael Bay has found its pilot director. Neil Marshall has been tapped to direct the Treasure Island-spun series’ first episode and that is great news to say the least. While the man has worked mostly on the feature side of things with movies like The Descent and Centurion, this is also the guy who directed the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season two entitled Blackwater. Just to clarify, it is about the coolest episode in the series to date as it manages to showcase a Lord of the Rings scale battle on the cheap with a high level of watchability.
For those unfamiliar with this Starz series, Black Sails is set 20 years prior to the events of Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and chronicles the adventures of fabled buccaneer Captain Flint. The launch date is slated for early 2014, and Deadline says that pre-production has already begun in Cape Town. Black Sails was given an eight-episode order back in May.
If you really want an idea of what kind of show this series will be, look no further than the description from Starz below.
Flint, the most brilliant and most feared pirate captain of his day, takes on a fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name John Silver. Threatened with extinction on all sides, they fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.