I read something about that a while ago. If I recall correctly, it was intended to be a franchise, but Master and Commander was so incredibly expensive that they decided against it.
I responded to this on another comment but from what I remember they got torpedoed by the MCU and thought they wouldn't be able to compete against them...however reading these comments here gives me hope as everyone seems to be over the CGIverse now.
That's good to hear. I haven't read any of the books (not my preferred literary genre) so I didn't have a preconception of the Aubrey character. This sadly left me loving Russell Crow as Aubrey, and I'll have a hard time with anyone else playing him. Crow is 59, now; he might still be able to get away with it.
And there's a whole bunch of more books to be adapted. That movie was so perfectly done I wish it had worked enough to allow a whole series of sequels.