Spielberg to Adapt Michael Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes

Apparently Steven Spielberg and the late Michael Crichton were good friends, and had been since the ’70s. Go figure, I didn’t even know that. In any case, with Crichton having recently passed away from cancer, Spielberg plans to turn Crichton’s posthumously published novel, “Pirate Latitudes” into a movie, with David Koepp already at work on the script. Koepp is also no stranger to Crichton’s books, having adapted both of his “Jurassic Park” novels into movies directed by Spielberg, though you wouldn’t know it by the film version of “The Lost World”.

Set off the coast of Jamaica in 1665, “Latitudes” is the story of a daring plan to infiltrate Port Royal, one of the world’s richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure. The book itself will be released on November 24th of this year from Harper Collins. According to USAToday, while “Pirate Latitudes” is about pirates, it will be a more grounded version as opposed to the fantastical nonsense of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films churned out by Disney.

We are also told that Spielberg has always wanted to direct his very own pirates movie, which begs the question, didn’t 1991’s “Hook” count, or is he trying to forget it ever existed? Robin Williams as a grown up (and apparently incredibly hairy) Peter Pan? WTF, Spielberg?