Cutthroat Island
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| Cutthroat Island | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover for Cutthroat Island |
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| Directed by | Renny Harlin |
| Produced by | Renny Harlin |
| Written by | Michael Frost Beckner Robert King |
| Starring | Geena Davis Matthew Modine Frank Langella Rex Linn Maury Chaykin Patrick Malahide |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Cinematography | Peter Levy |
| Editing by | Derek Brechin Florent Retz |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios |
| Release date(s) | December 22 1995 |
| Running time | 119 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $98 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Cutthroat Island is a pirate-themed action film starring Geena Davis and directed by her then-husband Renny Harlin, filmed in various locations around Malta. It was released in 1995.
Made the same year as Waterworld, Cutthroat Island was actually a much bigger financial flop. The budget approached 100 million dollars and the total US gross was approximately 10 million dollars. It was a contributing factor to the demise of the movie's production company, Carolco Pictures and Davis as a bankable star. It is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest box office flop of all time.[1]
[edit] Plot
Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) and her learned slave, William Shaw (Matthew Modine), are on a quest to recover the three portions of a treasure map. The treasure is hidden on a mysterious Cutthroat island. Unfortunately, the final portion is held by her villainous uncle, Dawg Brown (Frank Langella). Her crew is skeptical of her leadership abilities, so she must complete her quest before they mutiny against her. This is made more difficult by the efforts of the Royal Navy from Jamaica to end her piratical career. On her ship, Morning Star, Morgan starts the voyage to Cutthroat island.
[edit] Trivia
- Michael Douglas was offered $15 million to play the lead role. When he withdrew, the same offer was made to Keanu Reeves (who was busy playing Hamlet in Canada) and Tom Cruise. When Daniel Day Lewis turned the role down, the script was rewritten to make Davis' part bigger and the producers set their casting sights lower. Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Charlie Sheen, Liam Neeson and Tim Robbins all turned down $7 million to take the part before Renny Harlin and Carolco finally agreed on Matthew Modine to star opposite Davis for around $4 million.
- According to an interview with Empire magazine, Davis and Harlin were both huge fans of V8 juice. When filming wrapped, the crew discovered a truck full of unopened cartons of V8 juice. Modine saw this as indicative of the wasteful excesses of the production.
- The British release of the film was originally rated 15 (no patron under the age of 15). Distributors decided to target a family audience and so over a minute of film was cut to get a PG certificate. [2]
- The role of Dawg Brown was originally given to Oliver Reed, however Reed's alcoholism and inappropriate conduct towards Davis during production led to his firing and replacement by Frank Langella.
