Spielberg Adapting Another Crichton Novel

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 27th, 2009

Steven Spielberg is adapting another of Michael Crichton’s novels, the posthumously published Pirate Latitudes for DreamWorks Studios.  The deal re-teams the creative team of Jurassic Park and The Lost World, including screenwriter David Koepp.  Crichton passed away on November 5, 2008 from cancer.

The manuscript was discovered by his writing assistant and delivered to a publisher after Crichton’s death.  On November 24, 2009, HarperCollins is releasing the novel about a daring plan in 1665 to infiltrate Port Royal, one of the world’s richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure.  More about it on Wikipedia, the source for all things accurate.

The stories won’t be similar to Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy because it will be more grounded in reality and not the fantasy plots starring Johnny Depp.

Spielberg is producing the project, but hasn’t agreed to direct the film.  With his busy schedule, I wouldn’t expect him to board this one but the option will be there in case he feels the itch.  DreamWorks co-chair Stacey Snider told USA Today, “Without Michael knowing it, or even me knowing it, it turns out Steven always wanted to direct his own pirate film.”

Here’s what Spielberg had to say about the acquisition:
“Michael Crichton was one of our greatest storytellers who expanded all of our imaginations with his books, films, and television. With the ‘ER’ series and Jurassic Park series, I enjoyed one of the best collaborations of my career. Now with Pirate Latitudes, I and all of us at DreamWorks have the chance to be excited about bringing this new Michael Crichton work to the screen.”

It sounds like a good read and I’m excited to pick it up in a few months.  Hopefully he will direct because after Hook, I’ve been dying to see more Spielberg swashbuckling.