Crichton and Spielberg team up again

Influenced by the questionably deceased 2Pac Shakur, Michael Crichton is releasing two new books from beyond the grave, one of which has already been snatched up by Stephen Spielberg who will put it on screen as fast as possible.

Described as:

"a daring plan to infiltrate Port Royal, one of the world's richest and most notorious cities, and raid a Spanish galleon filled with treasure."

by USA Today, Pirate Latitudes will be produced by Spielberg, continuing their long running collaboration which started with Jurassic Park released in 1993. Also in the mix again is David Koepp, screenwriter for both JP flicks as well as Twister. Fitting that the movie will be about pirates since Crichton's computer was seemingly pillaged for gold after his death, and apparently they found it.

Since Dreamworks moved out of its one bedroom apartment and into its new home at Disney, there's some speculation that Latitudes will cause some competition with Disney's somewhat well known franchise Pirates of the Caribbean. Spielberg and Stacey Snider assure us though that:

"We would only pursue this if it was wonderful in its own way, and didn't interfere with their films"

So there you have it. The Spielberg flick may not buckle as many swashes or shiver as many timbers, but the duo has yet to produce a let down (I liked Lost World, despite its monstrous divergence from the book) so hearing this news has got me all kinds of giddy.

Pirate Latitudes will be released Nov. 24, with Crichton's other book, only about 1/3 finished, currently searching for a co-author to attempt to wrap things up.

Source: USA Today