A person named "A Pirate", "on Dec 6, 2008", posted a message, in stated thread, about Sabatini's novel being more then just swordplay and action. His novel, according to the post, was about the social ills of the day such as: slavery, the divine rule of kings. A remake would be welcome that tackled a fraction of the social problems of those timess and perhaps those we have inherited from those times. (source www.firstshowing.net/2008/12/03/phillip-noyce-remaking-1936-pirate-flick-captain-blood/)
As for finding other works no one has used before in making a movie, a good example of that is the movie being release now, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with Brad Pitt. The movie is based on a book: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel (Hardcover) by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Author), Nunzio DeFillippis (Adapter), Christina Weir (Adapter), Kevin Cornell (Illustrator). The Original F. Scott Fitzgerald piece was a relatively unknown short story. (source Amazon.com)
On casting for a remake of "Captain Blood" I admit that I can not think of actors that can fill the shoes of the original cast. The only Actress I can see replacing Olivia de Havilland is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and that is partly based on how much she looks like Olivia de Havilland.
