Black Sails swashbuckling starts 18 August

A prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's world-famous novel, Treasure Island, Black Sails is a gritty, adult drama set in the brutal and cut-throat golden age of 18th-century piracy.

Shot on location in Cape Town, the series features a veritable who's who of South African talent including Sean Cameron Michael (When We Were Black), Louise Barnes (Jozi-H), Fiona Ramsey (Homeland) and many more.

The 8x1-hour series follows Stevenson's infamous and feared pirate, Captain Flint (British actor Toby Stephens) who has a reputation throughout the West Indies as being the most brilliant and feared of all the Golden Age pirates.

It's 1715, and as Flint fights for the survival of New Providence Island - a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers - in the wake of threats from British and Spanish forces, he aligns himself with Eleanor Guthrie, daughter of the local kingpin, to hunt the ultimate prize and ensure his people's survival. But standing in the way are rival captains, Eleanor's intrusive father and perhaps the bigger obstacle of all: John Silver (Luke Arnold), a young, fast-talking, authority-flouting sailor recently added to Flint's crew.

A story combining real-life historical figures, events and locations with fictional pirate legends, the gritty, raw and violent eight-part series from Hollywood executive producer, Michael Bay (Transformers, Armageddon) stars Toby Stephens (Die Another Day, Jane Eyre), rising star Luke Arnold (Winners & Losers, The Tunnel), Jessica Parker Kennedy (90210, 50/50) and Hakeem Kae-Kazim (24, Hotel Rwanda, Half of a Yellow Sun).

The series was filmed at Cape Town Film Studios and employed more than 800 extras and crew of which only 30 were not South African.