Sahara

 

Sahara

 

A 2005, USA, UK, German, French, Spanish film co-production [Sahara Productions Ltd.

     (London), Mace Neufeld Productions [Mace Neufeld] (HW), Baldwin Entertainment Group

     [Howard Baldwin & Karen Baldwin], J. K.Livin Productions (Just Keep Livin' Foundation)

     [Matthew McConaughey & Gus Gustawes](HW), RSVP Entertainment LLC [William J.

     Immerman] (HW), Moguletta LLC (HW),Bristol Bay Productions [Philip Anschutz] (BH),

     Walden Media [Micheal Flaherty] (LA),Desertlands Entertainment (London), Studio

     Babelsberg Motion Pictures and Babelsberg Film[Henning Molfenter] (Potsdam-Babelsberg,

     Berlin, Germany), KanZaman France s.a.r.l [Frédéric Bovis] (Par) and Kanzaman S.A.

     [Frédéric Bovis] (Madrid)

Distributors: Paramount Pictures [Viacom] (04/04/05, US); WW: Summit Entertainment

     [Lionsgate Entertaiment] (HW), Universal Pictures International España, S.L. (04/22/05, Sp)

Producers: Matthew McConaughey, Stephanie Austin, Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin, David

     Barron, Frédéric Bovis, William ‘Bill’ Brown, Vicki Dee Rock, Gus Gustawes, William J.

     Immerman, Henning Molfenter & Chris Thompson; Nv: Clive Cussler

Director: Breck Eisner

Directors’ 2nd Unit D: E. J. Foerster; P: Matthew McConaughey, Stephanie Austin, Howard

     Baldwin, Karen Baldwin, David Barron, Frédéric Bovis, William ‘Bill’ Brown, Vicki Dee

     Rock, Gus Gustawes, William J. Immerman, Henning Molfenter & Chris Thompson;

Novel: Clive Cussler

Screenplay: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John C. Richards, James V. Hart &

     David S. Ward

Director of photography: Seamus McGarvey

Photography 2nd Unit: Harvey Harrison

Editor:  Andrew MacRitichie;

Music: Clint Mansell

     Song: “Right Place, Wrong Time” performed by ‘Dr. John’ (Malcolm Rebennack)

     Song: “We're an American Band” performed by Grand Funk Railroad,

     Song: “Sweet Home Alabama” performed by ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’ [Ronnie Van Zant (lead

                vocalist), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass guitar)

                and Bob Burns (drums)]

 

Cast:

Dirk Pitt - Matthew McConaughey

Al Giordino/Giodino – Steve Zahn

Dr. Eva Rojas - Penélope Cruz

Admiral James Sandecker – William H. Macy

Yves Massarde – Lambert Wilson

General Zateb Kazim – Lennie James

Dr. Frank Hopper – Gynn Turman

Carl – Delroy Lindo

Ironclad Confederate Captain Tombs – Robert Cavanah

Confederate 1^st lieutenant – Matthew Flynn

Confederate pilot – Christopher Saul

Confederate gun captain – Nathan Osgood

Confederate sailor who drops gold – Mark Wells

Confederate soldiers – Gary Bunn, Shane Pinson

 

Story: 1865-2005. A pair of treasure hunters’ partner with a WHO doctor to find the American Civil War Ironclad, CSS ‘Texas’, known as the "Ship of Death", which is loaded with the last of the Confederacy’s gold, and lost in the Sahara Desert. Union ships had chased the ‘Texas’ out into the Atlantic. Their it makes its way across and upriver towards Mali, West Africa, where it becomes marooned and buried beneath sandstorms.

Comment: [Filmed from November 2003 till July 2004, Morocco (five months), England at Hampshire Studios and Shepperton Studios, and in Spain (one month each)].

Sequel of sorts to “Raise the Titanic” (1980), that starred Richard Jordan (as 'Dirk Pitt') & Jason Robards (as 'Admiral James Sandecker'), here played by Matthew McConaughey & William H. Macy, respectively. “Raise the Titanic” was the fourth ‘Dirk Pitt’ adventure and was published in 1976, while SAHARA was the eleventh in the series, from 1992.

The Civil War scenes featuring a night attack on Richmond, Virginia, were filmed at Shepperton Studios and on a nearby lake.  The scenes were created using a full-size model of the ‘Texas’ that was built for the film. After the 1865 sequence was filmed, it was dismantled and reassembled in Morocco used as cemetery, where the lost gold shipment is found.  Shades of THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY!

Historically the scripters have the ‘Ironclad’ skippered by a certain Confederate Captain Tombs, which is only partially correct. There was a real life ‘Captain Tombs’, but he didn’t man or die on the ‘Texas’. Toombs was born Robert Augustus Toombs (spelt differently), on July 2, 1810, and was an American politician from Georgia. He became the Secretary of State of Confederate States, and was against the decision to attack Fort Sumner, and resigned from President Jefferson Davis's cabinet. He was then commissioned as a brigadier general and wounded at the Battle of Antietam. Following the war, he then successfully stood for election in Georgia, and during the Reconstruction Era served as a representative until 1877. So, the Captain Tombs, said to who be aboard the ‘Texas’, wouldn’t have been him.

All the actors in the Civil War footage were British.

Matthew McConaughey was coming off several romantic comedies, “The Wedding Planner” (2001) and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” (2003) and was looking for a change of pace. In fact, he had spent the past five years securing and getting “Sahara” into production. McConaughey would later appear in an adaption of Stephen Kings’ sci-fi western opus “The Dark Tower” (2017), that was shot in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.

Ms. Cruz & Steve Zahn, the following year co-starred together in “Bandidas”, the France/Mexico/US/Norway Mexican revolution adventure film. 

American producer Stephanie Austin had just made “Shanghai Knights”, the sequel to “Shanghai Noon”, which had its western scenes shot in Calgary, Alberta.

Writer Clive Cussler disowned the final film when the producers rejected his screenplay. Not surprisingly only two of his 25 'Dirk Pitt' books have found their way to the big screen.  Meanwhile the film's budget ballooned from $80 million, to $160 million by the time production wrapped. Distributors then put up a further $61 million in advertising expenses, only to see the film pull in a total of $119 million worldwide.  McConaughey's talk about a second 'Dirk Pitt' movie never came to be.

By Michael Ferguson