Pitt's new adventure
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifes...tures-headlines
A while back, I read that Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt adventure novels
were to become a movie franchise. What happened?

Dismayed by the dismal attempt to film his novel Raise the Titanic,
Cussler for a long time refused to have anything to do with
Hollywood. But then he had second thoughts, and an adaptation of
his 1992 caper, Sahara -- the 11th in the Pitt series -- is due in
theaters April 8. The movie was not completed without problems; at
one point, Cussler sued the filmmakers, saying "I don't know whose
book they think they're adapting, but it sure isn't mine." Now finally in
the can, the $100 million movie tells how Pitt, played by Matthew
McConaughey, teams up with a U.N. scientist (Penelope Cruz) to
search North Africa for a mysterious "ship of death."

Given the two stars' modest pull at the box office, the producers are
apparently hoping that the recent reports of a romance between
them may help sell the film. But they had similar hopes when Cruz
appeared with her then-love Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky, and nothing
much came of it.