If the 2003 naval epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World teaches us anything about life on a 19th-century British frigate, it is that even the most prolonged period of deck-scrubbing doldrums can suddenly erupt into thrilling action. Long-standing admirers of Peter Weir’s film experienced a similar adrenaline jolt this past weekend when news broke that the long-becalmed franchise based on Patrick O’Brian’s swashbuckling novel series was preparing to sail on to the big screen again. Ship just got real.
Patrick Ness, the author and screenwriter tasked with creating this new adaptation, confirmed his involvement by posting a bookshelf on Instagram of cherished O’Brian volumes. “This is a cache of riches,” he wrote, “with so much left to be explored.” He also affirmed his love of Weir’s original movie, perhaps aware that it has inspired the fiercest of loyalties in its fans and even its cast. In January, Ian McNabb of 1980s post-punkers the Icicle Works took to Twitter to recommend watching Master and Commander as a cure for pandemic-inspired insomnia and tagged star Russell Crowe in his post. Crowe responded with a prickly dressing-down that could easily have come from his character Captain Jack Aubrey at his most severe, generating an emphatic social media chorus reiterating the movie’s old-fashioned greatness.
It is strange to think of people being so protective of what has always seemed like a well-received and award-garlanded project. In a 2019 round table of Hollywood studio heads, veteran executive and current Sony chairman Tom Rothman identified it as the film he was most proud of getting made in his storied career. But while Master and Commander was nominated for 10 Oscars (winning for best cinematography and sound editing), there has long been a nagging sense that it never really got its due. Anchored by the magnificent odd-couple chemistry between Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) – the former an intuitive, hot-blooded captain, the latter a cerebral naturalist bewildered by nautical terms – Weir’s evocative sea yarn seemed primed to become an ongoing screen series. Instead it was that other oceanic 2003 blockbuster with an overlong name, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, that would get the repeated sequel treatment to greatly diminishing returns.
One of the reasons for Master and Commander’s unwieldy title is that Weir opted to adapt O’Brian’s 10th book in the series, The Far Side of the World. This meant the key characters were already established, and the story could begin and end with the HMS Surprise out on the vast open sea, seemingly ready to raise sail and head off on another adventure. In contrast, Ness has apparently been given the remit of exploring the beginnings of Aubrey and Maturin’s bromance. This may set alarm bells ringing depending on how you feel about the current industry trend for prequel origin stories – from the recent Cruella to the upcoming Wonka – but it is all existing material ready to be mined from O’Brian’s books.
In the opening chapters of the first Master and Commander novel, Aubrey and Maturin have a “meet-curt” rather than meet-cute, clashing at a musical recital in Menorca and committing to settle their grievances via a duel before finding common ground. Returning to the earliest days of their friendship will put some clear blue water between a new film and Weir’s original, while also kiboshing any chance of Crowe and Bettany returning to their roles. But it also opens up other intriguing possibilities. Film fans think of Aubrey as the formidable fighting captain capable of inspiring both hoity-toity officers and pressganged ruffians with his damn fine seamanship and buccaneering spirit, but in O’Brian’s books he is often revealed to be a rudderless fool on land, to great comic effect. There will also presumably be scope for introducing a female presence beyond faded portraits of sweethearts in lockets or exotic but mute island locals.
The real challenge will be in making something that can stand alongside Weir’s immersive vision. Among the various making-of documentaries from the original DVD release is a featurette where Weir discusses his approach to adapting O’Brian surrounded by well-thumbed paperbacks where Post-it research notes stick out from almost every page. At that moment, he seems to embody both Aubrey the fired-up leader and Maturin the meticulous researcher. If Ness and his creative collaborators can summon even half of that passion, there is every chance that a Master and Commander reboot could be fashioned into something not just seaworthy but glorious.
