Deadline reports that Guy Ritchie has finally announced his next directorial effort as he's signed on to direct and produce a new adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson pirate classic Treasure Island. Warner Bros. hopes Ritchie can work his magic on Treasure Island as he did with Sherlock Holmes, who can blame them since it's one of the more interesting franchises of recent memory. The only problem is that these sort of projects set on the high-seas are wildly extensive and can be disastrous at the box office. Pirates seemingly had an edge thanks in part to Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. It'll be difficult to see how Ritchie will be able to cast someone to give the same iconic energy to the morally ambiguous Long John Silver and the young Jim Hawkins. The last time Ritchie made an island themed feature we ended up with a remake of Swept Away starring his then wife Madonna which almost ruined his career, as the film was poorly received. It look Guy a couple of films (Sherlock Holmes) before he could shake off the stigma that the remake had done. Hopefully this round he'll be very careful with cast choices.
It seemed to be a toss up to what Ritchie was going to make next with Sherlock Holmes 3 going under script development by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Runaways) but Robert Downey Jr. is slowing things down action film-wise after Iron Man 3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a 60's era spy adventure film that Guy became producer of when director Steven Soderberg left the project. His sequel to RockNRolla titled The Real RockNRolla had been long in development but with the original cast in such high demand it would be difficult to wrangle them back. Not to mention a string of previous projects he had been linked to such as Lobo, Sgt. Rock, Xerxes (300: Battle of Artemisia) and a remake of The Dirty Dozen.
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