The film will be produced by Barry Josephson ("Enchanted") with a screenplay by David Franzioni ("Gladiator, "Amistad"). Josephson was initially approached with a screen treatment for "Blackbeard" back in December 2006 by a man named Pat Croce. Croce had written a book on the 'Golden Age' of piracy called "Pirate Soul." On top of owning his own pirate museum and restaurant, Croce is also a failed motivational speaker – his syndicated self-help show "Pat Croce: Moving In" was cancelled in 2005 – no wonder Josephson enlisted Franzioni to class up the script.
"Blackbeard" will chronicle the life and times of the original bad boy of piracy, Edward Teague. Known to the world as Blackbeard, Teague roamed the waters around North America and the Caribbean in the early 18th century, famously running his flagship 'Queen Anne's Revenge' aground off North Carolina in 1718.
Blackbeard has been featured in several films and television series, most recently in a straight to video biography from 2006 starring Angus "Robert the Bruce" MacFadyen – I wondered what had become of that guy. I'm betting that Dreamworks will do a better job with the legendary Blackbeard story. For their sakes I just hope that all those people who were running around saying "arrghh" and "parlay" a few years back haven't already moved on.
I would normally include a link to Variety's article her, to see why I have left it out read this.
