Donald Sutherland making animated pirate TV movie

Donald Sutherland is writing, producing and voicing Pirate’s Passage, an animated TV movie for Canadian public broadcaster CBC Television.

Based on the William Gilkerson book of the same name, the TV movie will be made by Sutherland’s production company, Martin’s River Ink with Canadian studio Pip handling the animation.

The pirate story is set in 1950s Nova Scotia and Sutherland will voice the lead character, Captain Johnson.

The Hollywood star said: “I couldn’t put the book down. It resonated with the clearest image of the man inside every boy’s being that I could imagine. It was life writ true and I knew Jim and Captain Johnson’s marvellous journey had to be seen on screen.”

Sutherland is currently starring in Tandem produced and distributed procedural Crossing Lines and Tandem will sell his new project internationally.