One might wonder why after all these years in major motion pictures of all kinds a critically acclaimed, ever-popular talent like John Malkovich would resort to staring in a network series based on a non-fictional book, but then again why does John Malkovich do anything. Perhaps it was the conceptual marvel at the center of the NBC premiere pirate epic that swayed the Red 2 actor to take the role of a 50-something Blackbeard the Pirate. The TV show isn't based on The Republic of Pirates--about that life of renowned sailor Edward Teach and his death at the hands of the British in 1718--so much as it is inspired by its mythic legend. Crossbones is a series that asks the question what if Blackbeard had gone on pillaging and plundering for another 15 years or so? Not as some Walking Dead-esqe undead pirate zombie, but an even more seasoned, crueler version of already legendary killer.
According to co-creator Neil Cross, his new TV show about blood thirsty pirates that roamed the American coasts with carte blanche in the years prior to the United States revolution, isn't going to be worrying itself with any sort of real historical facts or context, because that would, presumably, be boring (via Portland Press Herald):
"The Republic of Pirates is an excellent work of nonfiction, based on Colin Woodard's deep knowledge of and love for the Golden Age of piracy.
"Crossbones is an altogether different beast; it's a TV show more concerned with big, rollicking entertainment than historical fact."
It must have been the show's nature describes by Malkovich as, "hyper-esoteric for network television-- not that I know a lot about network television, because I don't," that drew the actor to the project because as he already told Entertainment Weekly, Malky really isn't interested in adjusting to a TV schedule:
"I had a conversation with Gary Sinise, who's also an old friend and does the other CSI. Sort of about what that was, what it meant, what the life was, etc.
"I really had to think about it because I was doing two operas, I still direct plays all the time, doing other little films that interested me--I mean, that, okay, nobody saw and you don't get paid for and blah, blah, blah, but that interested me."
It sounds like there must have been more to all the "making no money blah-blah", than Malky initially let on.
That or he has just always longed to swashbuckle.
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