[phrelin]

I'm not sure what to make of this.

A fresh, new spin on the classic tale, Treasure Island, featuring an all-star cast led by Eddie Izzard, Elijah Wood and Donald Sutherland. Robert Louis Stevenson's swashbuckling adventure story about fantastical treasure, youthful courage and murderous greed will premiere Saturday, May 5 from 7-11PM (ET/PT) on Syfy.

The cast is strong with...

• Eddie Izzard ("The Riches", "Oceans 12 & 13) as Long John Silver
• Elijah Wood ("Lord of the Rings movies", "Wilfred") as Ben Gunn
• Donald Sutherland (Golden Globe and Emmy Award Winner whose IMDb credits go back to 1962) as Flint
• Phillip Glenister ("Life on Mars", "Cranford") as Captain Smollet
• Rupert Penry-Jones ("MI-5", "Whitechapel") as Squire Trelawney
• Daniel Mays ("Outcasts", "Ashes to Ashes") as Dr. Livesey
• David Harewood ("Homeland", "Robin Hood") as Bones

...and a bunch of other British actors you've seen on BBCA and PBS shows.

It's an UK/Irish production by BskyB which is dumping a lot of money into new television productions and airing it on Sky 1 in January. One British review asked the obvious:

Did the world need another version of Treasure Island? On the strength of this stirring two-parter, into which Sky has pumped millions, the answer is yes.

Another says:

Robert Louis Stevenson's classic swashbuckler has been made into countless films and TV series in several languages, and has survived Muppet Treasure Island as well as an interstellar Disney animation called Treasure Planet. Pleasingly, Sky1's new version made a fine addition to the lineage, combining a shrewdly picked cast with lush production values while retaining much of the darkness and menace of Stevenson's novel.

And one asks:

When did pirates become cute, camp and cuddly stock characters in the children's book industry?

Do any other branches of the criminal psychopath fraternity enjoy such benevolent PR?

Mercifully, Sky 1's lavish retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island redressed the balance, presenting buccaneers as grubby, toothless, ruthless, amoral, merciless sea-borne bastards best avoided at all costs. Unless, of course, there is a fortune in hidden treasure buried half way around the world.

The Brits do a good job of retelling the classics.

Still, the best this could get in the US is Syfy on a Saturday.

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to get it scheduled for recording.

 

[spartanstew]

For those wondering, the whole mini-series is being shown in one night (this Saturday) in back to back two hour blocks, with a couple of re-showings on Sunday.

 

[seern]

I am sure with commericals, so this is a Netflix do.

 

[RunnerFL]

Apparently my Series Link only recorded the first part because I only have 1 2hr recording. crap...

 

[tsmacro]

Just got around to watching it last night. Wasn't too impressed but I guess what do you expect on saturday night on SyFy?

 

[Galaxie6411]

It was better than anything scifi makes themselves but still not great. Seems like it was really rushed at the end is the book that bad or did they just try to pack too much in?

 

[lparsons21]

The book was great and is a classic.

The story line in the show compared to the story line in the book is really different. The show was only vaguely in line with the book, and of course they did use the characters from the book.