Starz renews 'Black Sails,' orders Antonio Banderas project

Black Sails will continue sailing the high seas.

Starz has renewed the swashbuckling drama for a fourth season, which is slated to return in 2016, the network announced at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour on Friday.

Set 20 years before the events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island, the series follows Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), the most feared pirate of the day. Production on the fourth season will begin this fall in South Africa.

In other news, the network is developing Entertainment One’s Havana Quartet, which will star Antonio Banderas. Based on the detective novels from Cuban author Leonardo Padura, Havana Quartet follows hard-drinking, romantic Cuban police detective Mario Conde (Banderas), who longs to be a writer, but settled for a job as a detective.

Magic City’s Edurado Machado will write and executive-produce with Banderas, Peter Nadermann, Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny.

“Starz continues to see great opportunity in continued programming diversification with many communities and genres,” said Starz Chief Executive Officer Chris Albrecht. “Partnering with eOne to develop the drama series Havana Quartet with international star Antonio Banderas will allow us to give viewers a premium show that highlights the decaying beauty of Cuba during its ‘Special Period’ – a time and place which tourists rarely got to experience.”

Starz will also offer subscribers a chance to binge eight-episode limited series Flesh and Bone, as well as the 10-episode final season of Da Vinci’s Demons, online as well as On-Demand when they debut on Oct. 24 and Nov. 8, respectively.

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