Toby Stephens is to lead the cast of the small-screen pirate series "Black Sails," Starz announced Friday.

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The "Possession" and "Die Another Day" star will play Captain Flint in the eight-episode first season of the show, which is being produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes. The production is set to shoot at Cape Town Studios in Cape Town, South Africa, this year and will air on Starz in 2014.

The series 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," a synopsis said.

"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."