Not content to preside over the post-apocalyptic world of The Hunger Games films for the next few years, Donald Sutherland’s production company has set its sights on an animated pirate adventure more family-oriented than the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, but less comedic than Aardman Animation’s The Pirates! Band Of Misfits. Variety reports that Sutherland will star in and produce an adaption he's co-written of William Gilkerson’s 2006 novel Pirate’s Passage, to be directed by his producing partner and co-writer Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.)
Gilkerson’s book takes place in 1952 on the coast of Nova Scotia, where a sea captain takes residence at a struggling inn. As the sailor relates his experiences to the boy whose mother is the innkeeper, his intricate memories of Vikings, Sir Francis Drake, and Grace O’Malley (“the pirate queen of Ireland”) begin to reveal a grand mystery. Carrie-Anne Moss and Kim Coates have also joined the voice cast, and Sutherland has called the book “a thrillingly exhilarating adventure, a glorious coming-of-age story.” That’s either a strong veteran actor displaying some passion for a project he truly believes in, or it’s another case of Sutherland’s legendary improvising and rewriting schemes, like on Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie.