USA Today reports that Steven Spielberg is developing a film out of a posthumously published novel by the late Michael Crichton – “Pirate Latitudes,” an adventure story set off the coast of Jamaica in 1665.
Screenwriter David Koepp, who adapted Crichton’s novels for Jurassic Park and its sequel “The Lost World,” also has signed on to write the script. Spielberg plans to produce and is considering directing, says the newspaper.
DreamWorks Studios describes the novel, set for release Nov. 24, as 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.”
“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 in DreamWorks and the company’s co-chair and CEO.
DreamWorks plans to wait for Koepp’s script before setting any formal schedule for the project. “This is a reunion movie that taps into all three of them, and their love of high adventure. Just like old times,” Snider says.
