His sole drive is to be the most successful pirate in the world, and it won't be a problem. Hunter is a 17th-century version of Richard Stark's famous 20th-century anti-character, Parker - only handsomer, and much stupider. He has no emotions, no sex drive, no sense of humour, no sensual pleasures, no habits or hobbies or hopes or human flaws of any kind. However you imagine a handsome pirate looks, that's how he looks. Why did he become a pirate? Because Crichton required one. Every plan he makes is based on the assumption that he can't lose. The hero is a suicidally stupid but unbelievably lucky pirate, Captain Charles Hunter. And you'll need to relax your suspension of disbelief to the point where you should avoid accidental exposure to Glenn Beck while reading it. But you'll have to do nearly all the work yourself. It's certainly possible to imagine a novel or film while reading Spielberg, also repped by CAA, is finishing up “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” for Paramount and Sony before moving on to his remake of “Harvey” for DreamWorks and Fox.Yet it is selling like crazy, critics have anointed it, readers are unanimously raving about it on, and Stephen Spielberg has committed to film it.

The CAA-repped Koepp also worked on the screenplays for Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” He additionally wrote and directed “Ghost Town” for DreamWorks last year.

A dozen of his books were adapted into films, and he also wrote and/or directed original screenplays, including “Twister,” “Runaway,” “Looker” and “Westworld.”

Now with ‘Pirate Latitudes,’ I and all of us at DreamWorks have the chance to be excited about bringing this new Michael Crichton work to the screen.”ĬAA brokered the deal on behalf of the Crichton estate in conjunction with literary agency Janklow & Nesbit.Ī Harvard medical school graduate, Crichton published deeply researched novels, typically about technology run amok, for 40 years. “With the ‘ER’ series and ‘Jurassic Park’ series, I enjoyed one of the best collaborations of my career. “Michael Crichton was one of our greatest storytellers who expanded all of our imaginations with his books, films, and television,” said Spielberg. HarperCollins will publish the novel, which Crichton’s assistant found in a completed manuscript after his death, on November 24.Ĭrichton and Spielberg also collaborated on the long-running medical drama “ER,” which they launched together in 1994. “Latitudes,” which takes place in 1665, is about a daring plan to infiltrate Port Royal, one of the world’s richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure.

Pirate latitudes a novel