Fox May Plan Summer 2012 Around Tony And Ridley Scott Epic Pyrates

Are pirates still in? Just getting back in? Have and will always be in? I haven’t the slightest idea, but FOX is very much on board with eye patched looters lately. The international arm of the network made a deal with FX yesterday to co-produce and co-finance a new series about Jamaica’s notorious pirate harbor Port Royal, and now the domestic channel is in negotiations with Numbers producer Barry Schindel about his newest pitch. It’s called Pyrates, and it centers around the largest one day plunder in the history of the New World.

Way back in 1628, a vicious band of mercenaries absconded with the Spanish Silver Fleet, making themselves rich and inspiring scores of less successful copycat crimes for decades to come. Pyrates would examine not only the crime itself but the world which inspired the daring robbery and how that changed immediately after. Rather than a series, creator Barry Schindel is envisioning the show as more of a one-off serial extravaganza. It would run between ten and thirteen weeks next summer.

According to Deadline, brothers Tony and Ridley Scott have already boarded as producers, and if Fox signs on, they’ll all begin looking for some co-financing overseas. Expect the series to be a bit graphic but middle of the road enough for older kids to watch.