Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes

[Thagarr]

Steven Spielberg Developing Michael Crichton's Pirates Story
August 27, 2009

USA Today is reporting Steven Spielberg will develop a film based on Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes novel which will be posthumously published on November 24.

The story is set in 1665 off the coast of Jamaica where a team plans to infiltrate heavily guarded Port Royal and pilfer a Spanish galleon filled with treasures. "It's a mission movie, and we see it through the prism of what it might have been like to live on the island during that time," says Stacey Snider, Spielberg's partner at DreamWorks.

Spielberg is on board as a producer and is mulling over whether he intends to direct. Scribe David Koepp is also signed to pen the script having already worked with Steven and Crichton on Jurassic Park and The Lost World.

As USA Today points out, DreamWorks has recently moved its distribution through Disney who happens to have a successful Pirates franchise in Pirates of the Caribbean. Where those films rely on the supernatural, Pirate Latitudes is strictly grounded in reality.

"Michael wrote a real page-turner that already seems suited for the big screen," Spielberg said about the upcoming film and book. "Michael and I have had almost two decades of solid collaborations. Whenever I made a film from a Michael Crichton book or screenplay, I knew I was in good hands. Michael felt the same, and we like to think he still does."

Pirate Latitudes could be a great opportunity for Spielberg to focus his energy on story first and effects wizardry designed for mass appeal second. We should more about how the story is structured and who its target demographic is in just a few months.

Original story here :
http://www.thehdroom...ates_Story/5627

When I first found out about this new book late last year, I was hoping it would eventually get made into a movie. I'm not sure how I feel about Steven Spielberg's involvement though. He has a history of not exactly staying true to the storyline the way it was originally written. I am utterly disgusted that Disney will have any part of this movie at all, even if it is just as a distributor! The last thing I want to see is yet another Disneyfied pirate movie!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Steven Spielberg pirate film? Possibly with a John Williams pirate score? COUNT ME IN!

 

[Thagarr]

I am looking forward to it, I have always liked Spielberg, and John Williams is one of the best composers of film scores ever. There were however several things that he did with Jurassic Park that were entirely different than the book Crichton wrote. I do understand that some things have to be adapted to make a film run in just a two or 3 hour time frame, but if you have ever read the book, it is completely different than the movie. I just don't understand the need to "Hollywood" things that work just fine the way they are originally written. Unfortunately, this seems to happen quite a bit with all books that become movies, Crichton books seem to be especially vulnerable to this treatment.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I read Jurassic Park as well and the book is indeed quite good.
But as far as I'm concerned, the book and the movie are pretty good in their own rights.
Compare the Hornblower movies to the books and you'll also find some incredible differences.
But both work. Personally I don't mind inaccuracies with the books,
as long as the movie works fine as a stand-alone piece.

 

[Old Salt]

Most of the time the book is better than the movie because in the book you can do so much more and leave it up to the imagination. However, a couple of films that Spielberg did I think were better than the respective books that they came from. One was Jaws, and the other was Jurassic Park. I didn't like Jaws the book. I felt the film was much superior. In the book Hooper had an affair with Brody's wife and Brody beat him up. And Quint was described as looking something like a cartoon, tall and a long, then crooked neck and bald. Thank God Robert Shaw played the part.
In Jurassic Park, there was too much of everything. There were two T-Rexes, an adult and a baby, and Grant and the kids had way to many encounters with both of them. Including one where one of the T-Rexes swam after them in the water. That would have been overkill in my opinion. And also in the book Hammond was killed and he was a real prick as well. Probably closer to the type of individual Hammond would have had to be to create something like that. He was all about money and didn't give a crap that his grandkids were in danger.
And you never really knew what happened to Ian Malcolm. He just kind of disappeared in the last quarter of the book. It left you the impression that he died from his wounds. Too many people killed. That about sums it up. That gets to be overkill after a while.
So, with this movie, and no doubt Speilberg would get the first crack at it since he was a good friend of the author's, I think he will do a good job of it. We will have to see though. Too many of these pirate movies, no matter who directs, don't work. Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the few that did.

 

[Stallion]

Sounds like it's good I've never read either the Jaws or Jurassic Park books. Not to drag this off-topic, but Jaws has to have the spookiest music of any movie - it still gives me the willies. :

 

[Thagarr]

I agree Stallion, that theme is simply haunting. I saw Jaws the same year my parents took my family on a vacation to the gulf of Mexico ... I was all of 8 years old, it took a LOT of encouragement to actually get me in the water! :

 

[Thagarr]

I was just on Amazon and noticed that they have the hardcover edition of Pirate Latitudes for $9, with a list price of $27.99, that's an $18.99 saving! Almost the same price of softcover book! The book is scheduled to be out November 24'th. I am really looking forward to this one, it should be a great read! :mm

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Agh; it doesn't yet show on my usual Dutch buying site yet.

 

[Thagarr]

I am not sure how long this has been available, but I just ran across it today. HarperCollins, the publishers of Crichton's Pirate Latitudes, has posted the first several chapters of the book on their web site here :

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061929373/Pirate_Latitudes/index.aspx

Click on the "Browse and Buy" button, you do not have to buy the book in order to get a good preview. From what I have read, Crichton's usual historical accuracy is very much in place!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Question to you all: If I want to read some more nautical/piratey books, are there any you can recommend?
I've already got the entire Hornblower series and enjoy that a lot.
I was thinking Michael Chrichton's "Pirate Latitudes" could be interesting and maybe "Captain Blood" also.
But for Captain Blood I can only find a bunch of versions of the first novel and can't seem to find the rest.

 

[Thagarr]

Pieter, I think there was only one book that Rafael Sabatini wrote for Captain Blood, I don't believe it was a series. I believe the other movies that used Captain, were just screen plays written for Hollywood, but I could be wrong. I have never been able to find anything but Captain Blood either. He did write at least one more book that had a nautical setting though, the Sea Hawk, you can download that from the Project Gutenberg website. They have a lot of Sabatini's other work there as well. There are also a LOT of other pirate and nautical themed book there too!

The Sea Hawk

All of Sabitini's books on Project Gutenberg

 

[modernknight1]

Pieter,

I am a voracious reader with an extensive library. I highly recommend the following from my own shelves:

A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer, The Life of William Dampier, by Diana and Michael Preston

The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd, by Richard Zacks

The Speedwell Voyage: A Tale of Piracy and Mutiny in the Eighteenth Century, by Kenneth Poolman

The Black Ship, by Dudley Pope

The Prize of All the Oceans: Commodore Anson's Daring Voyage and Triumphant Capture of the Spanish Treasure Galleon, by Glyn Williams

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580, by Samuel Bawlf

Bold Privateers: Terror, Plunder and Profit on Canada's Atlantic Coast, by Roger Marsters

Patriot Pirate: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution, by Robert H. Patton

Pirates and the Lost Templar Fleet: The Secret Naval War between the Knights Templar and the Vatican, by David Hatcher Childress

The Pirates Own Book: Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers, by the Marine Research Society

and of course the landmark work: A General History of The Pyrates, by Captain Charles Johnson (alias: Daniel Defoe) first published in 1724

Though I've had all these quite a few years, I would bet that most of these are available from Amazon.

V/R MK

I forgot a good one just published a year or two back: Empire of the Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe The Ended the Outlaws'Bloddy Reign, by Stephan Talty

Ok I know these are not novels, but in my opinion real history is better than a novel and well written historic narratives often flow/are written in the style of novels which is the case of most of the books above. Happy Reading MK

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks modernknight1. None of these names sound familiar to me though.
Could you give me a bit more information on them?
Which ones would you reckon a Hornblower fan would like?
I like my books nautical, with a good story and easy to read.
I don't care if it's real history or fake history, as long as they're fun.
Hornblower reads as real history, even though I know it's fake.

I tried getting into Master & Commander, but haven't even finished the first book yet.
That is after one year of trying. There's just too much background information and not enough story.
One day I'll try to finish it though.


From Wikipedia.org:

Captain Blood was an enormously popular work, and Sabatini wrote two additional novels featuring Peter Blood: Captain Blood Returns (1930) (retitled The Chronicles of Captain Blood in the British publication) and The Fortunes of Captain Blood (1936). Both of these books are episodic tales of Blood's pirate career rather than true sequels. (All the episodes are contained within the timeframe of the original novel, although Sabatini mistakenly dated one story "1690" despite the fact that Blood's piratical career had been established as ending in 1689, and two stories in Captain Blood Returns: "The War Indemnity" and "Blood Money" may be viewed as continuations of events that took place in the original novel.)

That suggests to me that there is supposed to be more Captain Blood books than just the first.
Or does "Captain Blood: His Odyssey" include all of that?

 

[modernknight1]

OK Pieter, If you want a Hornblower-esque flavor from the above list, I recommend the following (all of these are softcover BTW):

1) The Black Ship, by Dudley Pope This book is brutal and Pope is both a brilliant writer and historian. It's set in the time of Hornblower circa 1797 on the British frigate Hermione in the Carribean. It covers what many consider the worst mutiny in British history and the loss of the Hermione to the Spanish. Dont want to ruin the story, but the ship is recovered by the famous HMS Surprise. You'll love it!

2) The Speedwell Voyage, by Kenneth Poolman This ones set in the 1720s, but it has everything and it is written as a novel. Its the story of the 22 gun British Privateer Speedwell. This book has everything, storms, mutiny, fighting. Their mission is raids on the Spanish plate fleet. This book is based on the original memiors of Capt. Shelvocke which inspired the famous Rime of the Ancient Mariner and has the island in it from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. A good read and it's only about a 160 pages. Read it in a couple days.

3) The Prize of All the Oceans by Glyn Williams This ones set in the 1740s and details more raiding on Spanish Treasure ships by the British . More history than novel, it flows well and reads easy. Commodore Anson sets off with a squadron of six ships (story centered on the HMS Centurion) on a secret mission to sail over half way round the world to raid the Manilla Galleons sailing from Acapulco to Manilla and Canton. These guys have all kinds of harships over the next four years and go everywhere. Satisfying ending. 240 pages - read it in less than a week. Good illustrations and sources.

4) Patriot Pirates by Robert Patton, This is a couple decades before the Hornblower series but about Yankee privateering in many of the same settings. More history than novel it flows good and has a Hornblower feel to it. Lots of great details on money and cargos and convoluted little plots. 240 pages

5) A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: This one reminds me more of Aubrey. It's set a hundred years before Hornblower, but this guy bucks everything against him. Most Pirates didn't live very long. I mean Black Bellemy's considered to have one of the greatest careers but it only lasted a couple years. This one's about William Dampier. This guy goes virtually everywhere from the Carribean to Madagascar to Australia. Dampier is one of these unknown guys that majorly influenced history. His descriptions of breadfruit was the reason Bligh went looking for it. More than a thousand entries in the modern English dictionary can be attributed to him...chopsticks, barbeque, and kumquat. I just really enjoyed the depth. This one took a little longer to read, more because I just enjoyed absorbing it so much. It's 335 pages and you wont regret reading it. It's one of those books that's not only just fun to read, but you end up being smarter in the process.

That should narrow it down for you. MK

 

[Thagarr]

I thought everything was contained in His Odyssey, but I was wrong. I didn't look at the Wiki, I had always went to http://www.rafaelsabatini.com/. After reading what you posted though, I went back and had a look around and found this :

Captain Blood: His Odyssey is a well-rounded tale, beginning with Blood's settled domestic life and ending along with his career as a pirate. Along the way we learn how oppression drives men to desperate actions, how fate plays a hand in everyone's life and that love is possibly the greatest power of all. The book, in short, wants for nothing. Its pages abound with adventure, colour, romance and even strong social commentary on the evils of slavery and the danger of intolerance. It ends poetically having tied up all plot lines neatly, leaving a perfectly satisfied reader behind. We need never worry about what happens after, it's not that sort of book. Peter Blood, Medicinae baccalaureus, has saved Port Royale, won his fortune, rank and lady. It is for the above reasons that a sequel, I thought, could only cheapen and make the original into an anti-climax.

In 1930 some eight years after the original made its appearance, Captain Blood Returns was published. The title might mislead somewhat as Returns does not take up from where Odyssey left off but details some of Blood's adventures from the height of his piratical career.

Ten well-sized short stories make up this volume, beginning with The Blank Shot, a story which details Blood's first conscious steps to embarking on a life of piracy. Without a single unnecessary noun, the tales move at a swift pace, captivating ones imagination as they unravel. The ten stories all display Blood's cunning, though subject matter varies considerably in each.

Some are epic swashbuckling tales like The Treasure Ship, others nicely understated dramas of treachery and suspicion like Blood Money and foolhardy behaviour like The Love Story of Jeremy Pitt. While The War Indemnity strikes a balance between swashbuckling and character drama, the two stories which deal with Madame De Coulevain reach a beautiful evocative note through thoughtful dialogue.

If Captain Blood: His Odyssey is the greatest swashbuckling novel ever written, Captain Blood: Returns is truly the greatest swashbuckling put on paper. Each story shows off Sabatini's brilliance with plot, counter plot and plot twist. The book displays the genius of Arthur Conan Doyle in its story development and execution, while full-blooded characters, which might well have once tread history's boards play out the clever dramas to perfection with equally superb dialogue.

Six years later The Fortunes of Captain Blood arrived, this time containing six longer and more developed episodes from the pinnacle of Captain Blood's career as a buccaneer. Alas by now Captain Blood is a little tired, his adventures seem repetitive almost. In some ways Monsieur De Coulevain is relived in The Eloping Hidalga as an ungrateful lover tries to make some gold out of Blood's misfortune though he has just done the lover in question a great favour. Sacrilege tries very hard to be clever but doesn't quite come off, while The Deliverance is the character drama played out too long. Following on from the superlative Captain Blood: His Odyssey and the sublime Captain Blood Returns, The Fortunes of Captain Blood fails to live up to its illustrious predecessors; it feels like one is parting with an old friend, though not on particularly good terms.

The link was hidden down in the right corner, I guess I just missed it. Amazon lists both, but they are both out of stock, and apparently out of print. After doing a little more research, I was able to find both books on https://www.abebooks.com, they are both used but in fairly good condition. They will ship internationally, but there shipping rates are expensive! I wasn't able to find any ebooks, I'll keep looking and see if I can dig anything up for ya Pieter.

 

[Talisman]

Question to you all: If I want to read some more nautical/piratey books, are there any you can recommend?

Have you read any of Dudley Pope's books - as well as the Ramage novels set in the Napoleonic War era, he also wrote 4 books set in the 17c Caribbean, involving Buccaneers and Pirates. (The titles are Buccaneer, Admiral, Galleon, & Corsair.). The stories are pretty good and they are not to heavy on the nautical detail.

Also he wrote a Biography of Henry Morgan - don't know if this is still in print.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks a lot, Thagarr! It appeared to me that those two 'sequels' are rather hard to find and indeed that seems to be the case.
Pity really. I've got one Dutch translated Captain Blood short story contained in a "Captain's Tales" book I have.
That story I liked quite a bit and I wouldn't mind seeing more where that came from.

And thanks to you too, modernknight1! Those definitly sound interesting.
I'll see if I can pick up some of those.
And just in case you misunderstood me, when I said I'd like something similar to Hornblower,
I don't necessarily mean navy books. Pirates are fine too, as long as they're not tedious to read.

Nope; never read anything from Dudley Pope...

 

[Thagarr]

Welcome mate, glad I could help at least confirm that they do indeed exist. I wasn't able to find any eBooks for them though.

I just got an email from Amazon telling me that they had shipped Pirate Latitudes! Unfortunately, it won't be in my mailbox till December 1'st! The first few chapters have sure peaked my interest in this book! :mm

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If you've got any comments on what it's like, be sure to post them here.
I have NO idea if I'd be interested in it or not and have no time right now to try to find out,
so any thoughts you have would be welcome.