NBC just released its first trailer for Crossbones, a one-hour action/drama series premiering on May 30th.
John Malkovich plays Edward Teach, the legendary pirate known as Blackbeard, who supposedly died by the time he was 40 — an historical note which NBC seems to take as a mere suggestion by casting Malkovich, age 60.
Also, by the looks of the trailer, Malkovich seriously embraces Blackbeard’s eccentric side, as seen in this quick shot of him having just pinned his own head with a crown of needles.
In Crossbones, Blackbeard sets his sights on the first-ever longitude chronometer (it’s 1715, after all, and that’s a hot commodity) and so he has his men sack a British ship in order to get the machine. Tom Lowe, an English spy on Blackbeard’s crew, destroys the chronometer before Blackbeard can get his maniacal hands on it. Once found out, Lowe is forced to rebuild the chronometer while imprisoned on “Devil’s Dominion” (that’s pirate-speak for “The Bahamas”).
See the first two-minute trailer, a montage of battles, blood spurts, blue seas and John Malkovich being bonkers. Could be fun.
