Sahara is a 2005 action/adventure film directed by Breck Eisner and loosely based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler.
Though it opened at number one in the US box office, grossing $18 million on its first weekend, Sahara is considered one of the biggest financial failures in Hollywood history[1][2][3] since Ishtar. From a financial perspective, Sahara was unusual because it performed reasonably well, generating $122 million in gross box-office sales.[2] However, the movie was beset by high costs, including $160 million in production costs and $81.1 million in distribution expenses.[2] The film lost approximately $105 million according to a financial executive assigned to the movie;[3] however Hollywood accounting methods assign losses at $78.3 million, taking into account projected revenue.[2] According to Hollywood accounting, the film drew in revenue of $202.9 million against expenses of $281.2 million.[2]
The Los Angeles Times presented an extensive special report on April 15, 2007 dissecting the budget of Sahara as an example of how Hollywood movies can cost so much to produce and fail; many of the often closely held documents had become public domain due to a lawsuit involving the film.[4]
Plot
Marine engineers, explorers and former officers and SEALs in the US Navy, Lt. Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) and Lt (jg) Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) travel to Mali, to search for what the locals call "The Ship of Death", the lost American Civil War ironclad warship CSS Texas that has a mysterious cargo. Pitt manages to thwart the assassination of Doctor Eva Rojas (Penélope Cruz), a doctor with the United Nations World Health Organisation, who is investigating the source of a disease that is wreaking havoc in the area. The cause is a vast amount of industrial waste that is threatening to cause an environmental disaster. It is up to Pitt and his associates at the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) to locate the source of the pollution and shut it down, and explore the connection between the deaths and the missing ironclad.
Promotion
To promote the film, actor Matthew McConaughey drove his own personal Airstream trailer (painted with a large Sahara movie poster on each side) across America, stopping at military bases and many events, such as the Daytona 500 (to Grand Marshal the race), premiering the movie to fans, signing autographs, and doing interviews at each stop. The trip's highlights were shown on an E! channel special to coincide with the film's release. McConaughey also kept a running blog of his trip on MTV's entertainment website. Both MTV and the film's distributor, Paramount Pictures, are owned by Viacom.
According to McConaughey, this film was intended to be the first in a franchise of films based on Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels (much like the James Bond film franchise), but the poor box office performance of the film has stalled any plans for a sequel or a franchise.
Legal problems
In February 2005, Cussler took legal action against Philip Anschutz, the producer, for failing to consult him on the script.[5]
Cussler sued the film's makers for breach of contract and producer Anschutz counter-sued Cussler for "alleged blackmail and sabotage attempts against the film prior to its 2005 release."[citation needed] Cussler claims that his initial brief of "absolute control"[citation needed] over the book's adaptation to the big screen was compromised and this contributed to it becoming a box office failure. In a statement to a Los Angeles court, Cussler says, "They deceived me right from the beginning. They kept lying to me... and I just got fed up with it."[citation needed] Anschutz countered that Cussler's behavior played a big role in the film's financial woes. His lawyer said "It is the height of arrogance for Cussler to take $10 million to make a movie and then torpedo the franchise."[citation needed]
Anschutz prevailed. On May 15, 2007, the jury awarded him $5 million, leaving it to the judge to separately determine whether or not Anschutz should have to pay $8.5 million to Cussler for rights to a second book. In a decision on January 8, 2008, Judge John Shook denied Cussler's claim for the $8.5 million.
On March 10, 2009, Judge John P. Shook ordered Clive Cussler to pay $13.9 million in legal fees to the production company that turned his novel "Sahara" into a motion picture. In his ruling, Judge Shook agreed with lawyers for Crusader Entertainment that an original contract between the two parties called for an award of legal fees if either side breached. "The issue boils down to whether the fees requested are reasonable and necessary," Shook said. He concluded that they were. Cussler sued Crusader in 2004, claiming the company reneged on a contract that gave him approval rights over the film's screenplay. Crusader, which is owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, countersued, accusing Cussler of duping it into adapting his book into a film based on an inflated number of novels sold. Jurors ruled in May 2007 in favor of the production company, and the author was ordered to pay Crusader $5 million.[6]
Reception
Sahara has been given mostly negative reviews. It holds a 38% 'rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and with a score of 41 out of a 100 on Metacritic.
Historical accuracy
- The real CSS Texas was unfinished when Richmond fell. It was captured intact by Union forces, but never used.
Cast
Anders Mickelson
See also
References
- ^ Biggest Box-Office Bombs of All Time
- ^ a b c d e Glenn F. Bunting, $78 million of red ink?, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2007.
- ^ a b Glenn F. Bunting, Jurors hear tales of studio maneuvering, Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2007
- ^ Sahara: Budget melts in the desert, Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2007.
- ^ "Don't give him rewrite." - LA Times.com, December 8th 2006
- ^ [1]
External links
