Great movie! Makes sense too since it leaves you hanging with him laying in a pursuit course (yea, I watch too much Star Trek) after the French Captain that just outsmarted him.
There are 20 or 21 books in the series (I've only read the first four, but am about to start on the fifth this weekend... Not a fifth... the fifth book in the series). O'Brian actually died while composing the 21st book. Apparently, his original hand-written notes can be found online, but they're almost impossible to read.
So, there's plenty of material out there to build a few sequels... provided you can get the cast back.
The first movie was a collection of bits from several books (for instance, when Stephen Maturin gets shot and has to perform surgery on himself? That surgery scene is taken from the third book, HMS Surprise - though the source of the wound is not a marine lieutenant's errant shot at an albatross.
Of the two lead characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, Maturin is by far and away the more interesting of the two. He's seriously messed up and full of self-deceptions and rationalizations. A great character.
Russell Crowe was an awesome casting decision in the role of Jack Aubrey.
The DTS soundtrack on the DVD totally rocks. A buddy came over the other day, and we listened to it at movie theater volume levels (no one else was home). The dog and the cats all made for the farthest corners of the house.
Great movie.
