Arnold Schwarzenegger Almost Starred In A Pirate Movie Based On A Famous Literary Character [Exclusive]

If there's one type of movie that could get us saying "shiver me timbers," it's a pirate adventure starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, what if we told you that it almost happened long before the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie franchise made seafaring rascals hip again? 

Back in the golden age of blockbuster action cinema that was the 1990s, Arnie and director Chuck Russell considered adapting Rafael Sabatini's "Captain Blood," a swashbuckling tale about an ex-soldier who escapes servitude and becomes a pirate in the Caribbean. Arnie and pirates? It was too good to be true, but Russell was kind enough to share some details about the unrealized project with /Film:

"It was very much like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' before 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' In fact, it was a popular script that may have inspired 'Pirates' a little bit, but it was a big, fun, action pirate movie, and I thought this Austrian pirate? No reason not to do that. And I think Arnold was uncomfortable with doing a period piece, which is why he brought me 'Eraser.'"

"Captain Blood" sounds pretty awesome, but its failure to set sail wasn't the end of the world. After all, it led to the director and actor collaborating on 1996's "Eraser," which is one of the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies for fans of high-stakes action, governmental conspiracies, death-defying parachute jumps, and CGI crocodiles. Still, "Captain Blood" might have been a risky bet in the '90s, so it's understandable why the iron-pumping actor was reluctant to make it.

Great pirate movies are few and far between, but the '90s gave us an expensive one with 1995's "Cutthroat Island." The film, which reportedly cost upwards of $115 million, was a major gamble for Carolco Pictures at the time — and it didn't pay off. In fact, the movie flopped so hard that it put the studio out of business, effectively killing flicks of this ilk until "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" came along and rejuvenated the genre in 2003.

So, where does Arnold Schwarzenegger fit into this?

Before "Cutthroat Island" was greenlit, Carolco Pictures considered making "Crusade," which would have been directed by Paul Verhoeven and starred Schwarzenegger. However, Carolco wasn't willing to spend over $100 million on the historical epic — which was described as a mix between "Spartacus" and "Conan the Barbarian" — and Verhoeven threw a tantrum at a meeting. "Crusade" fell apart, so the studio moved forward with "Cutthroat Island" instead, ultimately walking the proverbial plank into the oceans of bankruptcy.

We can only speculate about Arnie's hesitancy to make "Captain Blood." Did "Crusade" falling apart remove the wind from his sails? Or maybe witnessing "Cutthroat Island" destroy a studio factored into his decision? We can now spending the rest of our lives wondering what could have been, but pirate fans can find comfort knowing that "Captain Blood" didn't need Arnie to soar on the screen.

Rafael Sabatini's novel "Captain Blood" has been adapted and reimagined several times since it was published in 1922. The most notable on screen incarnation is Michael Curtiz's "Captain Blood" film from 1935, which sees the legendary Errol Flynn play the titular pirate. 

"Captain Blood" is a quintessential pirate story that boasts spirited adventure, action, and romance — everything we want from yarns about rascals sailing the high seas. Sabatini's tale also played a huge part in romanticizing seafaring criminals in the pop culture realm, much like Westerns did for outlaws like Billy the Kid. Indeed, Peter Blood (what a great name) is more of a chivalrous rogue than an outright bad boy, not unlike Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. He represents the notion of freedom against the establishment, making him very difficult to root against. 

As Chuck Russell noted, there are clear parallels between "Captain Blood" and "Pirates of the Caribbean." If his and Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie came first, we might not have gotten to see Disney's entertaining franchise. Fortunately, we got "Eraser" to make up for Arnie not getting to play a seafaring antihero, and that's just as great in its own right.