Pirates (1986 film)

Pirates is a 1986 FrancoTunisian adventure comedy film written by Grard Brach, John Brownjohn, and Roman Polanski and directed by Polanski. It was screened out of competition at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.

Riding on the success of the highly acclaimed Chinatown, Roman Polanski began to write a screenplay for a swashbuckling adventure film called Pirates. Originally, Polanski intended for Jack Nicholson to play the central role of Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red, a grizzled old pirate, but complications arose partially due to the enormous fees Nicholson was demanding according to Polanski, when Nicholson was asked what exactly he wanted, he replied, I want more. Following this, the production was delayed for a number of years when Polanski was arrested in California on a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, after which he fled the United States to avoid sentencing. Production restarted later in Paris, this time with a different production company, Cathargo Films, and a new producer, Tarak Ben Ammar. The role of Captain Red went to Walter Matthau and the film finally came out in 1986,years after it was first conceived.A full scale galleon was built for the film in a shipyard in the port of Port El Kantaoui situated at the city of Sousse, Tunisia, adjacent to the Tarak Ben Ammar Studios, which had been constructed exclusively for this production. An accurate replica above the waterline, but sporting a steel hull and a 400 HP auxiliary engine, the Neptune was and still is entered into the Tunisian naval register and is currently a tourist attraction in the port of Genoa, where its interior can be visited for aeuro entry fee. ........

Source: Wikipedia