EXCLUSIVE: After setting sail with their hot Treasure Island package last month, Ridley Scott and Hugh Jackman look to have found the film a place to call home. Sources tell Deadline that Sony Pictures is in negotiations to land the project, with Scott directing and Jackman on board to play the pirate Long John Silver.
Jack Thorne penned the adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel, which Scott and Michael Pruss are producing through the Scott Free banner.
Sony declined comment on the talks.
Deadline first reported last month that Scott had declared the film his next project after being blown away by Thorne’s adaptation. We also reported that 20th Century — Scott’s go-to studio that will release his next film The Dog Stars in August — did get a first look at it. It was ultimately a no from 20th, not because both parties didn’t want to work together, but rather because the studio is a Disney division; since Pirates of the Caribbean is a priority at Disney’s live-action unit, they didn’t want a competing pirates project and let it go to market.
The Dog Stars is based on Peter Heller’s post-apocalyptic novel.
While several other studios gave the Treasure Island package a look, Sony was high on it from the jump, which makes sense given Scott’s long-standing relationship with Tom Rothman. The Sony studio head championed several of Scott’s films when he was co-chairman of 20th Century while also backing several recent pics like All the Money in the World and Napoleon.
The Treasure Island package is a new take on Stevenson’s novel. That story follows a young boy who uncovers the map to a legendary buried treasure, and he embarks on a perilous sea voyage to claim a hidden fortune, only to find himself locked in a deadly battle of wits with the charismatic and treacherous pirate Long John Silver.
Since its publication in 1883, Treasure Island has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into over 50 languages, making it one of the most enduring and influential adventure novels ever written. John Musker and Ron Clements directed an animated adaptation Treasure Planet (2002), in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt voiced the boy, Jim Hawkins. Set in space and therefore leaning more science fiction, the film also featured the voices of Brian Murray as Long John Silver, Martin Short as the robot Ben and Emma Thompson as Captain Amelia.
Jackman is repped by WME and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Scott is repped by CAA. Thorne is repped by UTA, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates and Sloan, Offer, Weber & Dern.