NBC Orders Series based on The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

Luther creator Neil Cross is adapting Colin Woodard's 2008 book The Republic of Pirates for a direct-to-series order for NBC. The 10-episode series is expected to premiere mid-season. The book's subtitle: "Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribeean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down".

In the early eighteenth century, the Pirate Republic was home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates — former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves — this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote. They cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Europe from its New World empires, and for a brief, glorious period the Republic was a success.

(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)