TOBY STEPHENS CAST AS LEAD IN STARZ NEW ORIGINAL SERIES BLACK SAILS

STARZ CASTS TOBY STEPHENS IN NEW ORIGINAL SERIES “BLACK SAILS”

 Stephens to Play Lead Role of Captain Flint in the Pirate Adventure

Produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes

Los Angeles, CA – September 13, 2012 – STARZ announced today the casting of Toby Stephens in the lead role of “Captain Flint” in the upcoming Michael Bay-produced original series “Black Sails,” which is expected to air on STARZ in 2014.  The eight-episode first season of the pirate adventure centers on the tales of Captain Flint and his men, and takes place 20 years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.”

Stephens takes on the role of “Flint,” the most brilliant and feared captain of all the Golden Age pirates and commander of the pirate ship, Walrus.  Threatened with extinction on all sides, he and his crew fight for the survival of New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers, a place defined by both its enlightened ideals and its stunning brutality.  Flint adds a young stranger to his crew who goes by the name John Silver and sets forth on a plan that could alter the course of history forever. 

Toby Stephens is an English actor whose wide range of credits span from a wealth of title roles in London's West End and on Broadway, to box office hits such as Die Another Day.  Classically trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Stephens first made a name for himself on the stage at the RSC, and made his debut on the silver screen in Sally Potter's Orlando.  Since then he has accrued a wide range of film credits including The Great Gatsby,Onegin, Photographing Fairies, and as the antagonist Gustav Graves in Die Another Day, opposite Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry and Rosamund Pike.  Stephens is also known for his roles in Space Cowboys, alongside Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones, Possession with Claire Danes and Aaron Eckhart.  He will soon be seen in All Things to All Men opposite Gabriel Byrne and Rufus Sewell and Content Film's sci-fi thriller The Machine.  Additionally, Stephens' impressive list of television credits include “Waking the Dead,” “Robin Hood,” “Strike Back,” “Wired,” “Perfect Strangers,” “Vexed” and the BBC/PBS mini-series “Jane Eyre.”

“Black Sails” will be executive produced by Michael Bay (Transformers, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form (producers on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Nightmare on Elm Street (2009).  The series is created by showrunner and executive producer Jon Steinberg (creator “Jericho,” “Human Target”) and co-executive producer Robert Levine (“Touch”).

The production is set to shoot at Cape Town Studios in Cape Town, South Africa later this year.

About Starz Entertainment 
Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie and original programming entertainment service provider operating in the United States. The company offers 17 premium channels including the flagship STARZ^® and ENCORE^® brands with approximately 20.7 million and 34.2 million subscribers respectively.  Starz Entertainment airs in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online advanced services for its STARZ, ENCORE and MOVIEPLEX brands.  Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LMCA).