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Spierig Brothers Set to Bring Us 'Captain Blood' in Space?

by Alex Billington
July 30, 2009

Last December it was announced that Phillip Noyce would be directing a remake of the 1935 swashbuckler pirate classic Captain Blood. Variety announces that Noyce is off the project and has been replaced by Michael and Peter Spierig, the two Australian brothers behind the upcoming Daybreakers movie. But there's a twist - the Spierig's Captain Blood will be set in space. Warner Brothers heard numerous tired pitches off and on, but "when I took a look at [the Spierig's] animatic depiction of a pirate battle in space, it had such a distinctive visual look to it that I said, 'Great, I get it'," producer Bill Gerber explained. Read on!

Gerber says that despite the radical period and venue switch, the film will be fairly faithful to a plot in which the doctor, Peter Blood, joins up with a French pirate (played in the original by Basil Rathbone), only to clash with the buccaneer when the woman he loves (Olivia de Havilland) is captured by the pirate skipper. "There are some things you don't mess with, and that is as classic a movie storyline as you will ever find." So you can't mess with the story, but you can take the entire movie and set it in space? We'll see if that holds up. To be honest, I'm excited to see them re-imagine the original than just remake it exactly the same. You?

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Villa

Pretty sure the Spierig brothers are Australian. I'm sure they'll put their own quirky spin on this like their other movies. Should be interesting.
Paul

Question mark, exclamation point! Ten bucks says Billington didn't even know what Captain Blood was until this news hit.
T6000

Spierig brothers are Australian. Very talented guys. They made a great little low-budget Zombie movie back in 2005 called 'UNDEAD.' Was a festival hit. Daybreakers looks awesome.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

#2 - Well considering I wrote about that movie last December, I'm pretty sure I knew what Captain Blood was back then... You just lost $10 - you better pay up!
Paul

Ha! you just wrote about it in another news piece. That doesn't mean you know anything about it, just that you read the trades that day.
Tim

Before his post in December, Alex had never heard of Captain Blood, and wondered if anyone else had.... And now he's excited for them to re-imagine an original that until a few months ago had never heard of? Really? I agree with what Paul is saying.
Lando

YOu guys are all idiots! Is there some unspoken time period you have to wait from when you see a movie to appreciate it or write about it or be excited about anything related to it? How old are you guys? if the man saw the fuckn movie yesterday and enjoyed it and saw its value then why the hell cant he be excited about it? ITs a fucking classic and it rocks! and i agree, id rather see a fresh spin with that material, it can totally be pulled off! i gotta check out their other work now...
Curtis

i don't understand the people that nip pick over every little thing Alex says, if you don't like what he has to say why come to the site and read his articles.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

#6 - Why does that matter? I've familiarized myself with it and I'm saying I'm excited for the NEW concept that the Spierig are developing... Is that such a big deal?
moldybread

given all the trash coming out of Hollywood in past years, this (if done right) has at least the potential to be a good idea...
David Banner

Hmm...anyone remember 'Ice Pirates' ? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/
SS

Alex, I commend you on putting additional effort into research prior to writing. There has been a noticeable improvement in your articles lately. Keep up the good work! *thumbs up*
Demeter

I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, while watching Captain Blood I have thought many times that it could have been something that inspired George Lucas for Star Wars. We have the scrappy revolutionaries fighting against the "Empire", Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland's "Han and Leia" type relationship, the dialogue and the naval battles....I mean, the naval battles could be easily turned into spaceship battles. So on the one hand this could be very cool, because they're right, the story is just so good. But on the other hand, for me personally....It will be extremely difficult for anyone to top Errol Flynn as Captain Blood, and the movie in general is a personal favorite. So if they don't do the film justice, I'll be pretty pissed. In fact setting it in space is the only thing making a remake palatable.... trying to remake it as a pirate movie would just never work for me.