Sahara

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: March 25th, 2005 (wide)

Cast: Matthew McConaughey (Dirk Pitt), Penelope Cruz (Dr. Eva Rojas), Steve Zahn (Al Giordino), Dayna Cussler (Kitty Mannock), Delroy Lindo, William H. Macy, Glynn Turman, Lambert Wilson.

Director: Breck Eisner (feature debut)

Screenwriter: James V. Hart (Bram Stoker's Dracula); rewrite by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (debuts); rewrite by Josh Friedman (feature debut)

Based Upon: The 1992 novel, Sahara, by Clive Cussler, which is the 11th entry in his Dirk Pitt sea-based adventure series.

Premise: Adventurer Dirk Pitt (McConaughey) works for NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency), a government agency working to protect all things water-related. An encounter on the Nile with a beautiful U.N. medical investigator and neurologist, Dr. Eva Rojas (Cruz), trying to find the cause of a strange epidemic (that is driving North Africans to madness) leads them to suspect a vast pollution problem on the continent that threatens to kill much of the world's marine life, and thus, the entire planet's ecosystem. Pitt leads a special team of experts on a super-equipped yacht on a race against time, and the plans of a money-hungry billionaire and his ally, a violent West African tyrant. Their search takes them through the Sahara Desert, to a vast gold mine run by slave labor, and perhaps even the answers to two of the greatest mysteries of all time... the vast post-Civil War plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln (and its tie to a missing "Ironclad" battleship, The Texas), and the disapparance of a famous 1930s female pilot...

[Ravi]

No responses since it was posted in December.  Wow.  WOW.

Looks like crap.  The director is the son of Michael Eisner.  And it cost $130 million.

[pete]

whoa, solving the lincoln mystery only 100+ years too late, I like!

[Kal]

I dont think you have to be an expert to know these movies always suck... and MAYBE if you're very lucky like National Treasure you have a Box Office Hit...

But why the hell do they have to spend $130 million on it? It can be done with less... with those actors and a movie that takes place 90% on the desert? Come on... its bullshit... they burn money like if it was Star Wars or something like that... when at the end the critics will fuck it all up and people will go see Jimmy Fallon instead of this

[I Don't Believe in Beatles]

I really wish William Macy wasn't in that.  Okay, he wants to make some commercial films now, but that doesn't mean he has to take roles in crap... Then again, crap does make a lot of money sometimes.

[Raikus]

You only need to look at the source material for this: Clive Cussler.

I was on a long trip and listened to one of his audiobooks (about finding the fucking Nautilus). I haven't come across a more outrageous, Indiana Jones-ish wannabe, just plain stupid read since then.

[pete]

hahahahaha you actually read/ listened to the book!

seriously though, who shot lincoln?

[Gold Trumpet]

hahahahaha you actually read/ listened to the book!

seriously though, who shot lincoln?

Edwin Booth's brother.

[Ravi]

But why the hell do they have to spend $130 million on it? It can be done with less... with those actors and a movie that takes place 90% on the desert? Come on... its bullshit... they burn money like if it was Star Wars or something like that... when at the end the critics will fuck it all up and people will go see Jimmy Fallon instead of this

Sahara won't make $130 million in the US alone, but it will probably make a profit after international box office is totaled, not to mention DVD and TV rights.  Still, Robert Rodriguez could make this thing for $40 million, if not less.

[Pubrick]

Still, Robert Rodriguez could make this thing for $40 million, if not less.

and it would suck just as hard.

[Stefen]

im gonna make it a point to download this and be sure to let the studio know that im doing it.

[Kal]

But why the hell do they have to spend $130 million on it? It can be done with less... with those actors and a movie that takes place 90% on the desert? Come on... its bullshit... they burn money like if it was Star Wars or something like that... when at the end the critics will fuck it all up and people will go see Jimmy Fallon instead of this

Sahara won't make $130 million in the US alone, but it will probably make a profit after international box office is totaled, not to mention DVD and TV rights.  Still, Robert Rodriguez could make this thing for $40 million, if not less.

Yes thats true... but the same thing happened with Alexander, and it wasnt really what they expected. Or Hidalgo maybe, or other stupid movies like that. The studio or investor that puts the money for such an extravagant project really believes this will be a hit and that they will make a lot of money in the US box office.

[metroshane]

Why would you hope someone fails?  And why doesn't he deserve to make another film?  Who gets to make these decisions?

[mogwai]

Who gets to make these decisions?

the pope. but dear old matthew has to wait a while now.

[metroshane]

Could the FedEx Pope substitute?