The ocean fog lifted and someone at the studio table whispered, “He’s never done pirates.” You feel the odd weight of that sentence — a master of spectacle who has never fought for a chest of gold. Then the news lands: Ridley Scott is directing Treasure Island with Hugh Jackman as Long John Silver.
I’ve tracked Scott’s moves for years, and you should know what this pairing means before the trailers start. This is not a stunt casting note; it’s a package with a writer, a star, and a director who treats genre like currency.
On a Tuesday morning, inboxes lit up with one subject line.
Deadline broke the story: Jack Thorne wrote the adaptation, Hugh Jackman is attached as Long John Silver, and Scott is set to direct. The one-sheet is now headed to major studios — a bidding sprint that will read like a trade deadline. I watched how keys turned on phones and how executives asked for budgets without hesitation.
Is Ridley Scott making a Treasure Island movie?
Yes. Scott is attached to direct an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 classic. Deadline and other trades flagged the package this week; Scott’s history with Gladiator, Alien, and Blade Runner gives the project instant heft. You can check production listings later on IMDb and Deadline for updates, but the creative core—director, writer, lead—already signals a serious studio play.
At a rehearsal table, someone would hear Long John Silver and the room would change.
Hugh Jackman brings a granular charisma to roles that can be charming and dangerous in the same breath. Jack Thorne’s script arrives with that tension built in: a boy, a treasure map, a mutiny. I can already see Scott staging the betrayal as a public spectacle and making every clink of cutlery feel like a verdict.
Who is playing Long John Silver?
Hugh Jackman is set to play Long John Silver. Think of Jackman as a performance that can swing from genial host to predator without warning—he has the range to make Silver feel like both mentor and menace. Jackman’s presence alone turns Silver into a loaded cutlass in human form.
In the studio lot, someone quietly passed a note about Disney’s existing pirate slate.
Disney’s 20th Century team previewed Scott’s pitch because Scott’s recent film, The Dog Stars, is coming through that branch. But Disney reportedly passed because it still has a Pirates of the Caribbean initiative on its plate. That leaves the package open to other bidders: Universal, Warner Bros., Netflix, Amazon, Apple — all of whom have chased prestige franchises before.
Will Disney produce it?
Not reportedly. Disney’s 20th Century saw the pitch but declined to move forward because of internal Pirates of the Caribbean plans. That doesn’t close the door—studios routinely buy into similar IP—but it does speed up the auction. Expect offers that could triangle around a mid-to-high studio budget; numbers like $150,000,000 (€138,000,000) are plausible conversation starters if the scale matches Scott’s usual canvas.
Jack Thorne’s script and Jackman’s casting compress the timeline. This is a producer’s dream: director pedigree, a bankable star, and a public domain property that carries franchise DNA. You and I both know that when those boxes check, development moves from polite calls to concrete calendars.
Scott will likely treat shipboard life the way he treats battlefields—faces lit and weather used as accusation. His camera might become a compass made of light, pointing out loyalties. If he and Jackman click the way trades predict, we’re not getting a costume exercise; we’re getting a moral play with cannons.
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I’ll keep watching Deadline, Variety, and studio filings, and you should, too—because this could be the moment pirate iconography gets rewritten for a new generation; do you think modern audiences want a classical Treasure Island or something sharper and meaner?