Fans of the classic tale “Treasure Island” and cinema fans aching for the next big-budget pirate film were unexpectedly greeted with exciting news. Legendary Director Ridley Scott (“Gladiator” and “Alien”) is teaming up with Hugh Jackman for an upcoming Treasure Island remake.
The classic story, published in 1883 and written by Robert Louis Stevenson, centers on a young boy named Jim Hawkins who discovers a map to a legendary buried treasure. During his journey across the perilous sea to claim the treasure, the boy teams up with a group of men to aid him in that search, but his hopes are put in peril when he engages in a deadly race to find the treasure with the cunning pirate Long John Silver.
Selling over 100 million copies since its first release, Ridley and Jackman hope to make the latest iteration of the classic story the most ambitious take yet.
What We Know About the “Treasure Island” Remake
Jack Thorne (“Adolescence”) was picked to adapt the screenplay from Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic novel while also acting as an executive producer. Meanwhile, Hugh Jackman is reported to be playing the lead role as Long John Silver himself. Scott and Michael Pruss are set to produce the upcoming film of this classic novel.
According to recent reports, the project package will be sent to nearly all major movie studios to see which one wants to support it.
Among the many studios that will be offered a look at the pitch, Ridley offered the first look to 20th Century Fox, a longtime partner on his films and the one releasing his upcoming movie “The Dog Stars” later this year, in August. Despite having first dibs, the studio reportedly turned down the offer due to the desire not to have Ridley’s upcoming pirate movie conflict with Disney’s longtime fan favorite Pirates of the Caribbean in-house.
While little is known about the overall angle the story will take, Ridley and Jackman’s inclusion alludes to a grittier take on the source material, which has often been portrayed as a children’s story.
What Makes the Original “Treasure Island” a Classic
There is a reason “Treasure Island” has been adapted over 50 times across films and miniseries. Much of what people think of when they think of the stereotypical pirate originated in Stevenson’s novel and later adaptations.
Secret maps, hooks for hands, peg-legged pirates with eye patches, devastating mutinies, wise-cracking parrots perched upon a shoulder, and hunts for buried treasure. Yes, all of these ideas, among many others, were born of the classic tale and its various iterations—the most famous being the 1950 adaptation.
Directed by Byron Haskins, his rendering of the pirates from the book, including their habit of incorporating certain words into their dialogue, such as “arrr” and “matey,” has become a staple in the pirating world decades after its release.
Yet what makes the story stand out even more in readers’ hearts is its essence as a coming-of-age story for the protagonist, Jim Hawkins, one that readers can relate to. Readers see Hawkins as an honest, hardworking young boy creeping towards adulthood who is suddenly thrust into the devious world of pirates, where his sense of morality is constantly under siege from the charismatic and fascinating Long John Silver.
With movies like Christopher Nolan’s take on “The Odyssey and Michael Sarnoski’s “The Death of Robin Hood” (also starring Hugh Jackman) both coming out in 2026, Hollywood seems to be investing more heavily in bringing some of the classic tales back to the big screen.
