Orson Welles’ movie was a project the actor/director had long wanted to make. He was a long-time admirer of the novel and had performed it for radio in 1938. He wrote a script and tried to film in Spain in 1964, but abandoned it after only a few days due to lack of money. Contractually bound to the project however, he returned eight years later to make the film again.

The production was beset with problems from the start. The ship they sourced (a floating restaurant on the Thames) sunk when they tried to move it, and Welles clashed regularly with the director. Script re-writes prompted Welles to remove his name from the writing credit, and the audio quality of his dialogue was so poor it was later dubbed by another actor. As a result, the final film was considered a disappointment.

The 1990 film version starring Charlton Heston as Long John Silver was written & directed by his son, Fraser Clarke Heston. It features a cast of notable British actors including Christian Bale, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Julian Glover and Pete Postlethwaite. This version of the story is noted for its faithfulness to the book, with much of the dialogue lifted directly from it, as well as recreating several of its more violent scenes.

The replica ship used for filming was Bounty II. It was built in 1962 for the movie Mutiny on The Bounty, which had been saved from being destroyed at the end of that film by its star Marlon Brando. It did however sink in 2012 off the coast of the Carolinas while attempting to escape from Hurricane Sandy.