STARZ Announces Premiere for Pirate Series ‘Black Sails’

Ahoy there, mateys!  Sit down and prop your peg leg up because there is a new pirate series on the horizon.

Beginning in January 2014, STARZ will air the eight episodes of the Michael Bay executive-produced series Black Sails, currently filming in Cape Town, South Africa.

From the press release:

“The pirate adventure centers on the tales of Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and his men and takes place twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” 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 (Luke Arnold). 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.”

Has the pirate obsession ship already sailed?  It’s been a while since Johnny Depp put on his black eyeliner and staggered into our hearts as Captain Jack Sparrow. If interest has waned, will this new show revive the love for hoisting the Jolly Roger?

And, it appears as though the series will mesh fictional and factual pirates, with the historical Anne Bonny featured as a character. Also, since it’s a Michael Bay production, one can assume it will have over-the-top action and a lot of explosions.

At least it looks like a better production than the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film by Bay, currently filming. Nothing can be worse than that, right?

Right?

We’ll all have to judge for ourselves when January arrives, but until then, here’s a trailer:

-VnCBek