Sahara (2005 film)
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| Sahara | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Sahara |
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| Directed by | Breck Eisner |
| Produced by | Stephanie Austin Howard Baldwin Karen Elise Baldwin |
| Written by | Clive Cussler (novel) James V. Hart |
| Starring | Matthew McConaughey Steve Zahn Penélope Cruz Lambert Wilson Lennie James Delroy Lindo William H. Macy Patrick Malahide Glynn Turman Mark Wells Rainn Wilson |
| Music by | Clint Mansell |
| Cinematography | Seamus McGarvey |
| Editing by | Andrew MacRitchie |
| Distributed by | Paramount |
| Release date(s) | April 8 2005 |
| Running time | 124 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $130 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Sahara is a 2005 action/adventure film, directed by Breck Eisner, loosely based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler.
Critics gave the film average reviews but audiences gave it higher marks. Opening at #1, it grossed $18 million on its first weekend. Earning almost $69 million in the USA in its theatrical run and over $119 million worldwide with a budget of $130 million. The movie has done very well with rentals and DVD sales and has far exceeded its budget costs.
Awards: IFTA - Best Cinematography (2005) (Seamus McGarvey)
To promote the film, actor Matthew McConaughey drove his own personal Air Stream 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 slow pace at which the film earned back its production cost has stalled any plans for a sequel or a franchise.
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[edit] Plot
Marine Engineer, explorer and former Navy SEAL Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) travels to Mali, to search for what the locals call "The Ship of Death", the lost Civil War ironclad warship CSS Texas that has a mysterious cargo. Pitt and his longtime friend Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) manage to thwart the assassination of Doctor Eva Rojas (Penélope Cruz), a scientist who is investigating the source of a disease that is wreaking havoc in the area. The cause is a vast amount of pollution 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.
Tagline: Dirk Pitt. Adventure has a new name.
[edit] Legal problems
In February 2005, Cussler took legal action against Philip Anschutz, the producer, for failing to consult him on the script.[1]
Cussler is suing the film's makers for breach of contract. Producer Anschutz is counter suing Cussler for "alleged blackmail and sabotage attempts against the film prior to its 2005 release." Cussler claims that his initial brief of "absolute control" 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." Anschutz's lawyer believes Cussler's behavior played a big role in the film's financial woes. He says, "It is the height of arrogance for Cussler to take $10 million to make a movie and then torpedo the franchise."
[edit] Errors
- The real CSS Texas was unfinished when Richmond fell. It was captured intact by Union forces, but never used.
- There were ocean-going Ironclad warships from 1859, but these were conventional design. The Texas's sister-ship the CSS Virginia was blown up when Norfolk, Virginia fell to Union forces, not being seaworthy enough to enter the ocean.
- Jefferson Davis did not regard the fall of Richmond as the end of the Confederacy. Had a ship been able to escape with a fortune in gold, he would have sent it to another Confederate port, or possibly to Mexico, an ally while ruled by Emperor Maximilian.
- When Dirk Pitt is explaining the history of the five Confederate gold dollars, he says that Jefferson Davis had them made in 1865 and gave four of them to his top generals: Lee, Stonewall Jackson, JEB Stuart, and Johnson. Stonewall Jackson had died in 1863 and Stuart in 1864, so it would have been impossible to give gold coins to them in 1865.
[edit] Trivia
- During the opening sequence, while the camera moves around Pitt's office, many newspaper clippings are shown, detailing many of Pitt's past adventures. One of them is entitled "The men who raised the Titanic", a reference to the novel Raise the Titanic!.
[edit] Cast
- Matthew McConaughey — Dirk Pitt
- Steve Zahn — Al Giordino
- Penélope Cruz — Eva Rojas
- Lambert Wilson — Yves Massarde
- Dayna Cussler — Kitty Mannock (scenes deleted)
- Clint Dyer — Oshodi
- Lennie James — General Kazim
- Delroy Lindo — CIA agent Carl
- William H. Macy — Admiral James Sandecker
- Patrick Malahide — Ambassador Polidori
- Nathan Osgood — Gun Lt.
- Billy Seymour — Powder Monkey
- Glynn Turman — Dr. Frank Hopper
- Mark Wells — Sailor Who Drops Gold
- Rainn Wilson — Rudi Gunn
