With Treasure Island, Hugh Jackman Gets Another Shot At A Pirate Classic
The pirates’ life continues.
Hugh Jackman’s role in Pan is one that most fans of the actor have unanimously agreed to forget. The 2015 film might be the worst retelling of the Peter Pan origin story, a rare L for director Joe Wright, and the impetus for one of Jackman’s most baffling performances. It doesn’t help that he served as a kind of placeholder villain as Blackbeard, chewing the scenery while James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) gets a subverted origin as a roguish hero. Granted, he wasn’t the worst part of Pan — but the film doesn’t have much going for it otherwise.
Fortunately, Jackman will get another shot at an equally iconic pirate very soon. Per Deadline, the actor just joined the crew of Ridley Scott’s latest project. Penned by Adolescence and Lord of the Flies scribe Jack Thorne, the film is a “new take” on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel, Treasure Island. Jackman is set to play Long John Silver, a notorious pirate searching the high seas for an infamous cache of loot.
Ridley Scott is taking on another forgotten classic: Treasure Island.
Treasure Island is primarily about the rivalry between Silver and a young adventurer, Jim Hawkins, as they scramble to find the same treasure. Though most versions of the tale focus on Jim’s point of view, Scott and Thorne might be going for a different angle, focusing on Silver’s perspective to allow for a darker reading. This new version of Treasure Island will likely skew closer to something like Black Sails — the underrated prequel to Stevenson’s novel, which aired on Starz for four seasons — than Treasure Planet, the version of the tale that’s probably best-known now.
It’s been a long time since Treasure Island has gotten a straightforward, “prestige” adaptation. It’s a story so old that it’s been reimagined in every way something can be: even the Muppets took a crack at adapting Stevenson’s text. The novel also served as inspiration for a recent Star Wars story, providing a familiar foundation for the adventure in Skeleton Crew.
But that’s the trouble with Treasure Island: it’s better known as a frame of reference for a remixed story than it is as a classic tale. There’s a sense that this remake might not connect with its intended audience... but that hasn’t stopped Scott (or Thorne) before. If nothing else, it’ll be fun to see Jackman take on another iconic pirate — so long as he gets a slightly better wig this go-around.
