Lynda La Plante to Develop Television Series based on Pirate History

Crime novelist Lynda La Plante is developing a television drama series adapted from the non-fiction book Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age.

Author Marcus Rediker provides a history that shows from the bottom up how sailors emerged from deadly working conditions on merchant and naval ships, turned pirate, and created a starkly different reality aboard their own ships, electing their officers, dividing their booty equitably, and maintaining a multinational social order. The real lives of this motley crew -- which included cross-dressing women, people of color, and the "outcasts of all nations" -- are far more compelling than contemporary myth.

In addition to writing crime novels, including the Anna Travis mystery series (several of which have been adapted as made-for-television films), La Plante created the television dramas Prime Suspect and Trial & Retribution. NBC may be including a remake of the former on its Fall 2011 schedule, a pilot of which has already been filmed.

(Source: Deadline|Hollywood.)