Eddie Izzard to play Long John Silver in Sky's Treasure Island

Izzard is set to play Long John Silver in a new Sky adaptation of the world’s most famous pirate novel that was penned by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883.

 

The show forms part of a new content drive by Sky which is also set to produce TV versions of Terry Pratchett’s novel, the Hogfather.

 

Treasure Island is a children’s book which follows the story of a young Jim Hawkins, a West Country boy who discovers the location of the buried treasure of the infamous Captain Flint.

 

Treasure Island is set to go into filming next month in both Ireland and Puerto Rico and is set to be broadcast in Christmas 2012 on Sky One.

 

The show sees yet another revival of the piracy theme, with the BBC also in the midst of a pirate drama of their own, and Pirates of the Caribbean set to release a new film next year.