Michael Bay’s pirate drama ‘Black Sails’ gets Starz premiere date

“Black Sails,” the pirate drama from executive producer Michael Bay, will premiere on Jan. 25.

Although it is still two months from the premiere of the eight-episode first season, Starz has enough faith in it that production on a greenlighted second season begins this month in Cape Town, South Africa.

Toby Stephens stars as Capt. Flint, who takes on a brash young crew member named John Silver (Luke Arnold).

On the set: movies and TV

That’s right. This series is a prequel to the Robert Louis Stevenson classic “Treasure Island.”

The series takes place two decades before the events of the novel and recounts the pirates’ fight to preserve their island home, known as New Providence Island.

Zach McGowan, Hannah New and Jessica Parker Kennedy also star in the series, which was created by Jonathan Steinberg, who also created “Jericho.”

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