According to well-known Trekker and television writer Deborah Warner, Tribune Entertainment and Showtime are in primary stages of negotiations over her screenplay of a 2-hour pilot, Privateers: Return of the Pirate.
Warner, who will produce with her husband Jon Cunningham, says Privateers hopes to capture all the best elements of heroism, romance and adventure that the word "pirate" conjures up. The series is set in the distant future where warring aristocracies battle for control over the universe by pirating shipping lanes.
The pilot episode will star Karl Urban ("Caesar" of Xena fame) as the charismatic Aran Dravyk, an Errol Flynn-esque captain reminiscent of classic '50s adventure films.
Walter Koenig (Star Trek and Babylon 5) has also signed on, as have other actors who were cast because, as the producers quipped, they "looked like pirates."
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