BLACKBEARD

In the Golden Age of Piracy, at the dawn of the 18th century, Blackbeard stood out among the lawless rogues as the most fearsome and notorious seafarer of them all. He killed for the reputation, and his reputation has become legend.

Bristol, England, 1717. In order to restore safe passage to the sea lanes, Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy (Mark Umbers, Colour Me Kubrick) scouts the seas and offers amnesty to all pirates who choose to give up their evil ways and banish the criminals from the hundreds of island they occupy. An imposing force, Maynard meets his match when he’s taken by a fearsome hulk of a menace in the West Indies—a pirate sailing off the Island of St. Vincent. Edward Teach (Angus Macfadyen, Braveheart) has no plans for retirement. In fact, he has secured for himself a 26-gun, richly laden French “guineyman” that will serve as his new flagship. Raising a new mast emblazoned with a skull and crossbones, Pirate Teach prepares to forge the roiling waters. His goal—to find and lay claim to the fabled treasures of Captain Kidd.

Transformed into the newly christened Blackbeard, Teach works hard to establish a devilish image with his long black coat, black hat, bandoleered cutlasses, pistols and swords. The educated Maynard, his greatest adversary, now in his custody, can be of great use to Blackbeard—as a chronicler of the nefarious deeds that are to come, who can spread Blackbeard’s growing reputation for villainy. What unfolds is an epic battle for control of the seas, for the honour of Maynard’s beloved friend Charlotte Ormond (Jessica Chastain, ER), for the possession of untold riches that lie buried in a place as fearsome and unpredictable as Blackbeard himself: the decaying and ghostly Vulture Island, where Blackbeard’s fate would become a symbol of an era’s end in the history of piracy in the New World.

Everyone knows the legend, but few people really know what made him one. Now, meet one of history’s most notorious figures in this rousing and spectacular adventure, featuring an all-star cast that includes Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (American History X), Golden Globe winner Richard Chamberlain (The Thorn Birds) and Golden Globe nominee Rachel Ward (On the Beach).