Is ‘House’s’ Hugh Laurie returning to TV … as a pirate?

Considering how much money Hugh Laurie made his final few seasons on “House,” there was a serious part of us that just assumed that the actor was just going to kick back with all of his cash for a while before taking part in another TV project. However, it now looks as though he is angling to get back on the small screen sooner rather than later with an ambitious new project with NBC.

According to a new report from Deadline, Laurie is in discussions with presumably Universal (the studio behind “House”) to star as Edward Teach, otherwise known as the feared pirate Blackbeard, in an upcoming ten-episode series entitled “Crossbones.” It’s unclear if this would just be a miniseries, or if network programming head Robert Greenblatt is touching on some of his cable roots by airing shows with shorter seasons with more compact storytelling. (Personally, this is something we have been a fan of for some time in that it allows the network to try out more products, while at the same time making sure that they don’t have a show like “Revolution” that is overstuffing itself with filler content.)

Some examples of series that successfully run ten episodes a year are “Game of Thrones,” “Downton Abbey,” and “The Newsroom,” though all of these shows air either on premium cable or on international television. ABC tries something similar to this last year with “The River” and “Missing,” but it did not quite work form them. Fox, meanwhile, is airing “The Following” this spring with a shorter order (but more than ten episodes) in order to accommodate their lead in Kevin Bacon.

In getting away from the industry chatter, Hugh Laurie could be Blackbeard? How cool is that?! If you think this casting would work, and it is the biggest departure you could feasibly see from Gregory House, we want to hear your thoughts below!