Ridley Scott’s Treasure Island with Hugh Jackman is on hold after the director’s knee surgery
Cameras have reportedly stopped rolling, with the legendary director recovering from a medical procedure.
Right, so Ridley Scott is apparently determined to shoot films until someone physically stops him—or in this case, until his knees do. Scott, for anyone who’s not been paying attention to the last fifty years of cinema, is the director behind everything from Alien and Blade Runner to Gladiator and The Martian. He turns 89 later this month, and frankly, I’m half-convinced he’ll still be storyboarding well into his nineties.
His most recent effort, The Dog Stars (which, yes, is actual Ridley Scott dystopian sci-fi and no, not a dog show spinoff), landed in cinemas this August. But before critics could even finish arguing about that, Scott had another film lined up: Treasure Island. Unfortunately, getting it onto screens might take a bit longer than planned—and for once, it’s not due to creative differences or actor walkouts, but the director’s own health.
Scott Sidelined (Temporarily)
So, here’s where it gets fiddly. Scott was supposed to start rolling cameras on his new Treasure Island adaptation at the start of November 2026. That date has now come and gone—a bit like the fabled treasure itself—without any sign of filming actually happening.
Production on "Treasure Island" was meant to kick off on 1 November 2026, but Scott’s recovering from his second knee replacement and the start date is now in limbo.
The culprit? A 'really minor procedure', or so his rep, Simon Halls, told the US press. Translation: Ridley’s had his second knee replaced and for now, he can’t fly, travel, or presumably do much running around the deck of a pirate ship shouting at assistants. As a result, he missed the Governors Awards on 15 November, where he was given an honorary Oscar—the first of his career. Always the professional, he pre-recorded his acceptance speech in advance. Not exactly the swashbuckling image you expect from the man who once brought us xenomorphs, but there it is.
New Take on a Classic
For this next adventure, Scott’s revisiting Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 classic. The plot’s about Jim Hawkins, a lad who stumbles into the hunt for pirate gold and ends up nose-to-nose with the legendary Long John Silver—the sort of role that British actors of a certain age have been milking for about a century. There have been plenty of Silver incarnations before, from Orson Welles to Tim Curry, but Scott’s version has signed up Hugh Jackman (yes, Wolverine himself) for the part of Silver. Frankly, that’s probably the closest we’ll get to a superhero pirate for a while.
- Ridley Scott directs; was meant to start filming November 2026
- Second knee replacement is keeping him grounded—literally
- Hugh Jackman steps in as Long John Silver
- Screenplay by Jack Thorne
- Originally scheduled to release 11 November 2027, but that’s anyone’s guess now
You’ll be glad to know Jackman himself seems as surprised as anyone at landing the part. In an interview from last June, he admitted he’d never read the book or watched any previous film versions, and didn’t actually know much about Silver beyond the basics. The project piqued his interest because Scott approached him directly, and—crucially—the latest script is by Jack Thorne (the bloke behind ‘Enola Holmes’ and the ‘His Dark Materials’ adaptation), so frankly, expectations are relatively high. If it ever gets off the ground.
As for the all-important release date: Treasure Island was initially due in cinemas in November 2027. Given the director’s current minor setbacks, that seems rather ambitious. Sony, who are distributing, may well have to shift things if knees continue to get in the way.
Pirates Elsewhere, If You Need Them
If you’re oddly desperate for a Treasure Island fix while Ridley recuperates, there’s actually a new version on TV right now. In the US, it’s running on MGM+ (and on Paramount+ for those of us in the UK and Ireland). This one stars David Oyelowo as Silver and runs six episodes; only the finale remains to air, so you could binge the rest as a warm-up. It’s a crowded field for pirates lately, but apparently Stevenson’s classic is as unsinkable as ever.