Black Sails [Starz - US] [** Spoilers **]

Richard Dower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVaQE6KHGHM

Starz And Michael Bay Take To The High Seas For New Original Series "Black Sails"

Eight-Episode Season One Commitment for Pirate Adventure Tales of Captain Flint

Starz to Retain All Domestic and International Rights Including TV, Home Video, and Digital

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Starz Chief Executive Officer Chris Albrecht announced the straight-to-series greenlight of "Black Sails" (working title) from executive producer Michael Bay. The new STARZ Original series is expected to air in 2014. The eight-episode first season of the pirate adventure centers on the tales of Captain Flint 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. 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.

"Starz is excited to be working with a visionary like Michael,'" said Albrecht. "Along with the high-octane action that is a hallmark of a Michael Bay production, it has the elements that Starz originals are striving to bring to the premium landscape: epic, larger than life, cinematic storytelling. The series is also a property we believe will appeal to the global content marketplace with broadcasters around the world."

"I'm excited to branch out into television," says Michael Bay, the record-breaking director/producer of such big screen hits as Transformers and Bad Boys, "especially doing a long-form series for STARZ, a network known for supporting cutting edge programming."

Following the model of the "Spartacus" franchise and "Magic City," Starz will retain all domestic and international rights to the dramatic series, including television, home video, and digital.

"Black Sails" will be executive produced by Michael Bay (Transformers, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form [producers on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Nightmare on Elm Street (2009)]. The series is created by showrunner and executive producer Jon Steinberg (creator "Jericho," "Human Target") and co-executive producer Robert Levine ("Touch").

The production is set to shoot at Cape Town Studios in Cape Town, South Africa later this year.

JP Liz V1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GCXBw9Qwqs

FloatingVoter

Just watched episode 1 of this. Quite good. Usual Starz boobs n' lesbian stuff is in there alright but not overdoing it. I'll keep up with it just to give the brain a rest. As, usual the pirates' teeth would make Tom Cruise envious. And definitely not a history lesson.

calex71

First episode is available to watch here http://www.starz.com/originals/blacksails

@Mods The link is to the shows official site

jenjenten

calex71 wrote: »

First episode is available to watch here http://www.starz.com/originals/blacksails

@Mods The link is to the shows official site

yeah...the pilot is floating about, get it?....floating

FloatingVoter

jenjenten wrote: »

yeah...the pilot is floating about, get it?....floating

Where to you think I saw it. Hardly a secret. http://www.tv.com/shows/black-sails/community/post/black-sails-pilot-episode-free-preview-139016195190/

But I won't spolier this - its an inside secret....John Silver turns out to be a nasty piece of work. Man called Stevenson told me that in strictest confidence.;)

Mr Blobby

Just watched episode 1 and really enjoyed it.
It has the usual Boobs,blood and things that go boom. Basically if you enjoyed Spartacus you should enjoy this.

Its also pretty cool seeing places like Nassau after you've been playing AC4 :pac:

Headshot

Damn that was fair enjoyable

Had a good laugh out of the black beard scene

kearneybobs

Quite enjoyed watching that, especially since playing through AC4 only last week. Going to give it a fair chance at least.

ScumLord

I liked it but thought it was walking a tightrope between having a pirates of the caribbean flavour which is sort of light hearted but dealing with fairly hard core issues, none of the characters look much like pirates either, all far, far, far too pretty. I get the feeling it'll fall apart as the pretty hollywood part tries to go the opposite way from the hard core pirate story.

User45701

i thought it was a good watch.

Not as good i was expecting but its only episode 1 and i did enjoy it and will watch the whole first season then make a call

Sudden Valley

second episode was quite good.A lot of fleshed out characters (and not just nakedness).

FloatingVoter

Sudden Valley wrote: »

second episode was quite good.A lot of fleshed out characters (and not just nakedness).

Yup...think we'll be on the high seas next week. Once Flint can find his inner peaceful person and not cook Silver alive. But I do hope lesbian action continues for ehh...educational purposes.

Clareman

I'm enjoying it so far, nice little Spartacus replacement

Potential-Monke

I'm loving it. Love pirates i do! And AC4 really heightened that, so this is awesome to me.

Patty O Furniture

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Where to you think I saw it. Hardly a secret. http://www.tv.com/shows/black-sails/community/post/black-sails-pilot-episode-free-preview-139016195190/

But I won't spolier this - its an inside secret....John Silver turns out to be a nasty piece of work. Man called Stevenson told me that in strictest confidence.;)

Cheers for that, as that it'll stop it from being pirated






















I know...

Gran Hermano

Clareman wrote: »

I'm enjoying it so far, nice little Spartacus replacement

I agree, a good combination of styling from AC4 and Spartacus.

the_syco

Liking this so far. Any link to Hell on Wheels? It seems... to have a similar way of telling the story?

FloatingVoter

the_syco wrote: »

Liking this so far. Any link to Hell on Wheels? It seems... to have a similar way of telling the story?

Well, unless a Doctor Who appears and bridges the 150 year time gap - mot much hope of a series link-up.

tomdempsey200

thought it was rubbish myself

the_syco

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Well, unless a Doctor Who appears and bridges the 150 year time gap - mot much hope of a series link-up.

Not to link the series, but if they had similar companies doing the production. Seemingly not.

=-=

Find the sunglasses of some of the pirates a bit too new...

FloatingVoter

the_syco wrote: »

Not to link the series, but if they had similar companies doing the production. Seemingly not.

=-=

Find the sunglasses of some of the pirates a bit too new...

Yeah, just checked that out - sunglasses as we know them not invented until 1752. This is 1715 and Rackham was wearing some very sporty shades. I thought it was a continuity error (in that light all the actors would be wearing shades when not in a take) until they gave him a major close-up wearing them. My amazing research took 5 seconds on Wikipedia. Wouldn't have hurt the show to put in a similar effort.

Sudden Valley

for a pirate show I'm disappointed that it features very little actual sailing. It seems to be more about the intrigue and shifting alliances in Nassau- its like a low-brow Deadwood.

titan18

Aye, it's something I'm watching if I have time, lack of actual sailing is pretty crap so far, hoping that changes. Doubt I'll be watching this too long though unless it improves a lot

Mr Blobby

Enjoying it so far.
Its a leave your brain at the door type of show.. Something i've been missing since Spartacus.

Sudden Valley

Thought the fourth episode was pretty good. The careening of the ship looked good and also there was a pinch of violence, intrigue and emergency surgery. Only minus so far is the minor role of John Silver. They just don't know what to do with that character.

Potential-Monke

Episode 5: Things starting to pick up a good bit now, plenty of action and a nice bit of gore to boot. And left on such a cliffhanger! Can't wait for the next episode!

Potential-Monke

Episode 6: Things just ain't going Flints way are they? I wonder

did Flint kick Boots (pun intended) off, or did he genuinely fall? And was that Blackbeard at the end??? Tank of a man if it was!

I done myself a disservice and read the plot of Treasure Island, which this is apparently a prequel to. It has ruined a few points slightly, ie: i now know who's not going to die. So, if you haven't seen or read Treasure Island, don't read about it now!

Also, 500 hours to build each ship. :eek:

expectationlost

great intro music, by bear mccreary of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmzzrU3gR8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On_Lh1wiSjk

Sudden Valley

Epiosde 7 was pretty good. Heating up for both a land and sea battle. So much enjoyable watching a show when you know it has been renewed.

kearneybobs

This really is ramping up nicely. Looking forward to it every week now.

Has it been renewed?

Sudden Valley

yeah renewed a few months ago for a 10 episode second season

bluesfan

I believe that they started shooting the second season last November in South Africa so most of it is probably already filmed.

CastorTroy

I've never read Treasure Island and I don't remember any of the adaptations, so it's annoying when people say things like (spoiler for after Episode 7 at least)

Billy isn't dead, because he's in Treasure Island

without marking it as a spoiler. It's like Spartacus and Boardwalk Empire all over again where they seem to act like "Oh everyone knows what happened anyway"

Anyway, I was surprised at the new Quartermaster but not disappointed as I like him. Next episode should be a good finale, though I can see it ending on a cliffhanger

squonk

In fiarness Castor it's been years since I read Treasure Island myself but even a quick read of the Wikipedia page for the book tells you that Silver and Billy become friends and it's on this that TI is based. Flint trusts Billy with the location of his treasure. It's hardly a spoiler really.

stevenmu

Believe it or not, not everybody who is watching the show has gone to the TI wikipedia page to see what happens next.

It's years (decades even) since I read TI and have no idea what happens. So you've just posted another spoiler.

FloatingVoter

I find it hard to believe that anybody is unaware of the basic plotline of Treasure Island. Even the Muppets did a version (quite a good one at that). And given that Treasure Island mainly consists of John Silver's version of events, I'm assuming the producers of Black Sails fell free to play fast and loose with the content.

CastorTroy

All I remember about Treasure Island is

there's a pirate called Long John Silver

. And that Tim Curry was in the Muppets version.

So I think best practice would just be to either spoiler references to the book or not mention the book.

I know I kind of started this whole discussion myself, so apologies.

Unfortunately I'm away this weekend so won't even get to see the finale until Monday at the earliest.

Potential-Monke

CastorTroy wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm away this weekend so won't even get to see the finale until Monday at the earliest.

Ah balls. I assumed it was 10 episodes!

Sudden Valley

Excellent final episode. The writers have created a good cast of characters. Looking forward to season 2.

kearneybobs

Just finished it there. Great episode. Perfect way end it all setting up the next season. The more the season went on the more I got into it.

Clareman

Ah b@lls, I didn't know that was the season finale, nice little show this, Spartacus meets Pirates of the Caribbean

CastorTroy

When I saw all the cannon flaps open on the other ship I just thought "Oh f**k!"

Now have to wait another 9 or 10 months for the next episode.


Really liking this series, though it does make me want to visit Cape Town

squonk

I didn't realise that was the final episode either . Great episode overall and I'm bugged too that I've to wait almost a year to see events transpire on the island.

Anyone else starting to lose interest in what's happening back at base, all the goings on with Ms. Guthrie and the fort and all that? It just took away from the excitement of the latest episode cutting back to the island politics. I don't care enough about those characters tbh.

Clareman

I think there's a great setup happening, can't go back home cause they aren't in control, can't sail away cause their ship is in bits, can't attack the Spanish cause they are outgunned, looking forward to the next series already.

FloatingVoter

CastorTroy wrote: »

When I saw all the cannon flaps open on the other ship I just thought "Oh f**k!"

Now have to wait another 9 or 10 months for the next episode.


Really liking this series, though it does make me want to visit Cape Town

Yeah, the flaps opening was a great shot. Like a kid with a water pistol shooting at a grownup with an AK47. Once those flaps opened me and Flint were on the same page - i.e. "how good is my swimming ?"

Artful_Badger

Just caught up with it there. Great show and great last episode, also didnt realise it was the season finale either.

mafaa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCZMIPj4IBY

satguy

Season 2 started last night, so I grabbed S02E01 as soon as I could, and had it with my tea and toast this morning.

Great Episode, thrills, spills, blood, and guts,, Well worth catching..

duridian

Cheers for the reminder satguy!

shinny

Flint and Silver are great together. Loved their scenes. What the heck happened to Dufresne? It's a new guy this season. Just as well they had the Harry Potter glasses to keep us straight!! He's no Captain and he's going to make it easy for Flint to win back the ship.

Low seems like a nasty piece of work.

Still miss Billy Bones

Funny how there are a lot of bi-sexual women, but no bi-sexual men.;)