In early January 2004, Dayna Cussler, dressed in the flying attire of a 1930s aviatrix, climbed a shaky ladder on a sound stage at Shepperton Studios in England. Reaching the top, she crawled into the mockup of a vintage airplane cockpit perched on top of a multi-axis hydraulic system. Dayna was performing the role of Kitty Mannock, the pilot who perishes after crashing in the prologue to Sahara.
Once Dayna was settled in the cockpit, the camera would roll while the hydraulics bounced her around to simulate an airplane in trouble. The final shot was a close up of the crash. After Dayna yelled, “Oh, my God!,” the special effects team shattered the sugar glass windshield and hurled two large funnels filled with sand in her face. “The first time,” Dayna says, “the sand hit me square in the eyes and had to be washed out. Thankfully, everything worked on the second take and we wrapped.”
While Dayna was having sand thrown in her face, the entertainment community was stunned when they read the front page of the Hollywood Reporter:
Author Cussler Sues Over Unauthorized Script . . . Bestselling author Clive Cussler sued producers Crusader Entertainment and its parent company on Thursday for allegedly altering a screenplay that Cussler had approved of one of his books. Cussler, the famed American action/adventure author who has sold more than 125 million books worldwide, wants more than $10 million in damages and an end to his relationship with Crusader, a Beverly Hills based film company owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz. “Crusader materially altered the approved screenplay without Cussler’s written consent, denied Cussler’s express screenplay approval rights under the agreement and has begun to film a screenplay which it knows was explicitly disapproved by Cussler,” according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by attorney Bert Fields.
“Anschutz thought I was some bush-league writer from Arizona who was going to fold up and disappear,” Clive says. “Fortunately, Peter knew Bert Fields. Bert had already crossed swords with Anschutz and agreed to take the case because he thought it would be a shoo-in - Crusader had breached the contract, I wanted the rights to my second book back, it was that simple.” Appearing on the television show, Celebrity Justice, Fields was resolute. “We intend to take the matter to trial and fully litigate it. I want to get these people in front of a jury.”
Shortly after Fields announced Clive was going after Crusader, Anschutz fired back. His countersuit accused Clive of blackmailing Crusader by withholding consent over the script, inflating the numbers of Pitt books sold, slandering the movie before it opened, making derogatory remarks about blacks and Jews, and attempting to organize a fan campaign to coerce Crusader into letting him write the screenplay.
While the case wound its way through the legal system - it would be three years before Cussler v. Crusader Entertainment ended up in court - the cameras were rolling in Morocco. Bedeviled by blinding sand storms, flash floods, fierce winds, 120-degree temperatures and unscrupulous bureaucrats demanding bribes, principal photography for Sahara wrapped in January 2005.
A month later, Matthew McConaughey served as the Grand Marshall at the Daytona 500. After watching Jeff Gordon take the checkered flag, the actor climbed into his pickup truck - towing an Airstream trailer that had been turned into a rolling billboard - and set out on a six-week publicity tour to promote Sahara. According to McConaughey, the campaign was dreamed up by one of the film’s executive producers. Stopping at major cities, tiny hamlets, military bases, parking lots, and trailer parks, the actor covered more than 8,600 miles. Along the way, he handed out 3,000 hats and 4,000 T-shirts.
Talking to reporters along the route, McConaughey declared, “Is it my obligation to go on the road to sell the film? No. But it’s a win/win - usually.” Asked about Clive’s well-publicized aversion to the film, the actor tried to put on a happy face. “Please, baby [Clive]. Just come see this,” he pleaded. “See what we did . . . This should be a great limelight time for him ‘cause this is not Raise the Titanic. We went off and worked hard . . . I had a lot of great conversations with Clive, and then there were none.”
The producers also tried to put a positive spin on the situation. A few days before the film’s release, Howard Baldwin announced, “Cussler is a terrific guy. He had somewhat of a distrust of Hollywood . . . But we developed a positive relationship and then thanks to forming our partnership with Phil Anschutz we were able to get the whole deal done.”
Sahara’s premier was held on April 6, 2005, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. McConaughey made his grand entrance from his Airstream, parked in front of the theater. Breck Eisner considered having Penelope Cruz ride a camel past the photographers, but was afraid she might fall off. Instead, the actress, radiant in a backless pastel green gown, led the animal down the sand-colored carpet on a halter.
Dayna was the only member of the Cussler family invited to the premier. When Eisner was informed Dayna had sent in an RSVP, he called her the morning of the event to explain the plane crash scene had been cut from the film. “It wasn’t that much of a surprise,” Dayna says. “I’ve worked enough in the film industry to know this happens all the time. However, I found it rather peculiar he decided to break the news on the morning of the premier.”
Dayna invited a friend to accompany her to the event. While they were driving down Hollywood Boulevard, Dayna began to have second thoughts. “I was curious to see how the movie came out,” she says, “but I decided, because of the lawsuit, it was probably not in my Dad’s best interests to show up.” Spotting a young couple near the theater, she asked if they would like to see a movie. Dayna laughs, “They happened to be tourists and couldn’t wait to tell their friends they were going to walk down the carpet at a Hollywood premier.”
Sahara’s closing credits list James V. Hart, Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, and John C. Richards as screenplay writers (they neglected to mention the additional six) based on Clive Cussler’s novel. One week after it opened, Sahara was the number one rated film and went on to ultimately earn $122 million in gross box-office sales, a respectable performance until the film’s production costs - $160 million (twice the original budget) - and $81 million spent on distribution are figured into the equation. After all the numbers were computed, Sahara lost $84 million, placing the film (as of 2016) the top ten list of all-time box office bombs behind Cutthroat Island, The Alamo, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
The critics were unkind. Writing in the New York Observer, Rex Reed declared, “Despite the vast beauty of location settings in Morocco and Spain, the vast lack of chemistry between the two stars is appalling.” The Washington Post’s Stephen Hunter stated, “a mediocrity wrapped inside a venality, toasted in a nice, fresh cliché.” The Toronto Star’s Peter Howel was equally unimpressed. “Unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark, which this movie wants so desperately to be, there’s nothing here to engage the brain along with the eyeballs.” Claudia Puig, USA Today’s film critic stated, “A testosterone-drenched escapade that misses because it lacks the tension to make it a thrill ride.” Roger Ebert was a tad kinder, “Sahara is essentially a laundry line for absurd but entertaining action sequences.” Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an anemic 39 percent rating.
Moviegoers struggled to give Sahara a break. “I am sure Mr. Cussler feels like they threw out his baby with the bath water, but please enjoy the movie as a movie.” “For the first shot as a real attempt at a Cussler book - not bad at all.” “Matthew McConaughey, graduate of the Keanu Reeves school of acting is a dumbed down version of the book Dirk Pitt but he still has his moments.”
Clive’s readers, disappointed the movie had little resemblance to the book, were not as forgiving. “Sorry folks. Sorry Clive. Sahara was pretty sorry. I gave it 2 out of 5.” “Steve is just not a ‘swarthy’ Italian, with a body ‘like a fireplug.’” “I left the movie knowing that to enjoy a Clive Cussler story you must read the book.” “McConaughey comes across as a shallow, slow-talking former frat-boy, or maybe ex-football jock who never lost his taste for weekend keggers.” Speaking for the majority, one unhappy fan suggested, “Clive, have you considered producing a Dirk Pitt movie yourself and writing the script the way it should be done?”