Spielberg Aims for Another Crichton Feature, But Not 'Jurassic Park'
Instead of dinosaurs, there be pirates here
USA Today brings word Steven Spielberg has set his sights on producing and potentially directing a feature film adaptation of the late Michael Crichton's yet-to-be-published novel "Pirate Latitudes," an adventure story set off the coast of Jamaica in 1665. David Koepp, who recently penned Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well as adaptations of Crichton's Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, is set to adapt the screenplay.
Of course this will be for Spielberg's newly funded DreamWorks Studios which describes the novel, set for book release Nov. 24, as the story of "a daring plan to infiltrate Port Royal, one of the world's richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure."
"It's a mission movie, and we see it through the prism of what it might have been like to live on the island during that time," says Stacey Snider, Spielberg's partner in DreamWorks and the company's co-chair and CEO. "Anything that Michael wrote, Steven would be keenly interested to read. But without Michael knowing it, or even me knowing it, it turns out Steven always wanted to direct his own pirate film."
When asked if it would find problems with comparisons to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which is set to have Pirates of the Caribbean 4 released some time in 2011 or 2012, Snider says these swashbuckling movies won't clash because Pirate Latitudes will be more grounded in reality, as opposed to the supernatural fantasy of the Disney films.
I know with Spielberg set to direct the Harvey remake next people began to wonder what happened to the guy that made Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters. Well, perhaps he's back.
You can preorder "Pirate Latitudes" from Amazon right here.
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@Brad Brevet: So, lemme get this straight: Stephen Spielberg will be directing Tintin, Harvey and now, Pirate Latitudes? When will he ever get to his long-gestating "Lincoln" biopic? Never.
Please, Brad, tell me your thoughts on this. I've been wanting this film to happen since 2005 (the Lincoln one that is).
@The Jackal: I have to assume never is the case. My assumption is they were never quite able to nail down the script and didn't want to take a gamble.
This could turn out to be what I'd hoped for Pirates of the Caribbean, (although I liked the first one) deep down I wanted it to be "grounded in reality".
Hmm this got me wondering.
Are there any 'realistic' pirate films at all?
They've all been adventures as far as I know.
Would Latitudes be distributied by Disney now that they have the new contract with DreamWorks? I thought Disney was wanting to do Pirates 4 at some point. I can't imagine they'd do both if it were the case.
What I mean to say is whether "grounded in reality or not" just seems like too much Pirate stuff from a studio.
Pirate movies have been colossal tanks in the B.O. until Jack Sparrow came along. It will be interesting to see if future "realistic" Pirate movies from other studios can gain a foothold, since when audiences think of Pirate movies they immediately think of Disney's franchise. Steven Spielberg's name attached to one-whether as director or producer-will attract people, but I don't think it'll be as big a draw as Depp in future installments of PotC.
On a side note, At World's End was hideous and hopefully the 4th is more streamlined and akin to Curse of the Black Pearl
Steven Spielberg seems to circle EVERYTHING nowadays but never actually settles down and gets to work on a specific project.