Captain Blood is preparing to set sail again.
Screenwriter John Barrow has been hired to script a new version of the classic swashbuckling adventure for director Phillip Noyce. Warner Brothers is developing the remake with an eye towards it being a U.K.-Australia co-production. Previously, Brownlow wrote 2003’s Sylvia, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig.
The 1935 original, available on DVD, starred the incomparable Errol Flynn as a doctor who is wrongly convicted of treason and sold into slavery. He escapes to seek his revenge as a pirate on the high seas. Basil Rathbone and Olivia de Havilland also starred.
Hopefully, Brownlow will stay true to the original’s high adventure roots. While the ticket buying public certainly seemed enamored with the buccaneers in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, the movies were strictly fantasy adventure as opposed to the more historically-based stories used in classic swashbuckling adventures like Captain Blood and its ilk. But is there an actor today who could come close to rivaling Flynn’s onscreen presence?George Clooney has the chops to pull off the breezy charisma, but I don’t think he’d be physically right for the role. Any thoughts?
Via Hollywood Reporter.
