Due to production delays, the release date for Sahara has been pushed back to April/May 2005. Filming should have been completed at the end of March 2004, but is expected to continue till mid-June.

Anschutz wants very much to settle and move forward and has added back into the screenplay many of Clive's requests. Unfortunately the scene with Al and the train won't be included due to costs.

The lawsuit was kicked out of Federal Court and is now back in California State Court.

Cheers p:

I can see why this could be. I'm sure much of the movie would come at quite a cost. Clive tends to write things on a rather grand scale, the train scene is just another in the lineup. (Such as the scenes with the ironclad. Those would not have been cheap).
I'm also curious to see how the pollution-causing complex will look, and am pretty sure that couldn't have come cheap either.

The complex is something I am looking forward to as well.

Unfortunately, I can understand that they edited it out. I hope they can come up with another way for the Special Forces to arrive.

Have them tunnel underground like moles and than enter in the center of the charging force and gun them all down. MWAHAHAHAHHAHA. I don't think that that idea would fly with the director or Clive for that matter.

I am looking foward to this film. I can not wait till this time next year to see the film. I have a feeling that it will be out sooner then that.

will the old prospector and mr perrywinkle make an appearance? will clive cussler play the old prospector. This is a real important scene dontcha think? Its like cussler's trademark for cryin out loud.

Yay!! I have more time to read the book now :D

The Movie is on the list for release in Decenber of 2004 or may come out in Early 2005.

If only I had a time machine I would go into the future see the movie than come back and tell you that it's not good. Hopefully it will be good but i'm not very optemistic after all the stuff that has happened. And don't even get me started on MM!

I really hope it's a success, and becomes a franchise that is as good as Bond (since I'm also a huge Bond fan I like to compare the to :lol: ) Dr. No was expected to do poorly at the box office but it succeded and look how popular Bond is still today! I'm hoping Sahara, which sounds and has been predicted to be a disaster, will succed and spaw a Dirk Pitt series, I think Pacific Vortex (a more gritter Dirk Pitt adventure) should be released as the next Pitt film in 2007 (two year gaps). And I hope that all are re-signed to there roles but it's going to be hard to considering all the reoccuring characters in the Pitt films compared to the Bond films...I don't think it will work well if in Sahara, Matt M is Pitt then in the next film it's Steve Segal :lol: same for Al, Rudi, Sandecker, etc.!

Pacific Vortex would be a great choice if you were to chronologically start the Dirk Pitt series, but Hollywood has obviously chosen to produce the most popular titles for maximum return.

I can't see why Sahara shouldn't be a success, there's millions of fans out there desperate to see their hero's in the flesh. The only way its going to bust in my opinion will be because of critics tearing the thing apart limb from limb before movie-goers even buy tickets. But even then I'd think that any Dirk Pitt fan would find it hard to resist seeing it at least once.

Cheers ... p:

Good point, Dirk. Look at the J-Lo flick Gigli. Not even J'Lo's die-hard fans could save this film from disaster at the box office after the dumping it recieved by critics all over the world.
(My wife enjoyed the film, but then again, she married me, so her taste is obviously messed up! :P )
Not even big-name stars (such as boasted by Sahara) can save a sinking movie if the story isn't good. Fortunately, on that regard, Sahara should shine.

@golferreino2002

Think positiv! CC will do his best! :)

Can there be too many "branded' movies? nah, at least one more! Having grown up watching Bond movies maybe a young actor can start playing "Dirk Pitt" movies. If this is done right it could be the start of something :rolleyes:

Heres the deal,
Although I've entertained the notion of Dirk on the Big screen since I was 15, If this dispute between Cussler and Anschutz isnt settled by the time the movie rolls around, I will not pay for a ticket. And I would expect many fans around the country to boycott it the same as me. I would even go as far as to stand outside the theater and pickett with other fans,(damn I wonder if anything like that has ever happened in the history of movie openings?). Anywho, It would serve a double purpose, support Clive and stand up against the oh-so-unsinkable big business of hollywood. Just my $.02

Hummmmmm.

I just hope there is no repeat of Raise the Titanic.

Fiasco and Cussler and Hollwood seem to go hand in hand in hand. I wish the whole book series is made into sequenced movies like the James Bond series. I can see the drama of who will play DP 20 years from now. . . .

Cheers!
M

Hi Guys and Girls,

Just found this Sahara, some newish pics from sahara. At least he has green eyes, so thats a good start.


Steve

Cool Pic 1

Cool Pic 2

Nice find, productionx !! th:

Is MM starting to resemble the Dirk Pitt that we all have in our mind's eye?

I for one am beginning to see him as Pitt ... anyone else ?

Cheers ...

I am also. :)
Those green eyes suit him

But Zahn is still so-so

But if the Doc. says he is cool who am I to question him

Great Find th:

Awesome find productionx,
I think MM will fill out the roll for Dirk quite nicely, as for Zahn I think he has the build but every picture I've seen so far makes him look like he has sandy colored hair, when Al's is jet black, oh well guess we cant win em all. Now all we need is a pic of Macy as Sandecker... ;)

t: mr mathew does look good as dirk but the guy playing al im not so shure he does not look barrel chester or 5 foot tall and definatly not italian

Remember who you are talking about Hollywood...Taste...Money....Really Bad Taste...money...push C.G....exposed more flesh.....money. w:

I don't know. They always make it look too easy, when in reality the world of espionage and COIN isn't like that AT ALL!!

It will be a while, the Greater Union web site (For those in Australia) have the release date at the 26th of December 2005.
I think we need to fastforward time, I am looking forward to seeing how well it is done.

hiramyaeger, I don't know how to quote on this forum, but for being like the Bond series, I meant more like Dirk Pitt becoming popular and an icon :) and having a long running movie and literary franchise.

But I do agree with you about Bond being completely different from real Espionage but there great adventure (my favorites are ther books)

At first I didn't think MM could be Dirk....I always kinda saw Huge Jackman as Dirk but now as I look at the movie pictures and everything, he's starting to grow on me.

Which is saying a lot because he's not really one of my favorite actors. Steve Zahn playing Al is questionable to me also like most people, though in the pics he pulls it off. He doesn't look that Italian.

All I can say is bring it on!!! MM as Dirk is great Although i see a younger Tom Selleck doing the job. As for Al I see a muscle bound Joe Pesci. let me know what you think. so:

I think Steve Zahn will do a good job of playing Al, ok so I don't think he's going to look like anything I had imagined but then neither will MM or any other actor playing them, for that matter.

But Steve is a good actor and I think personality wise he IS Al, he has that comedic air about him but can also be serious, I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with the part. th:

I don't know if anybody else has mentioned this, I couldn't find it, but they had info on Sahara the other night on Entertainment Tonight. I about took the kitchen door off its hinges trying to get to the TV.

Anybody else see it?

Irishlass, You'll find that info on the link below.

Click Here

that made me laugh! j:

maybe :rolleyes: just mixed a little bit arnold and little bit pesci bu:

Not a bad choice, joke th:

Boy, I hope they don't blow it.

In 1981 when I first met him, (see my post on "Have You Met Clive?") he was so ticked off about "Raise the Titanic" I never thought I'd see another Cussler movie....ever.

I don't know what possessed him to trust these Hollywood sleezes, but maybe he thought that he had control or he thought he could trust them. I know the money is a lure (more $ to hunt for wrecks!) and time and family changes have a way of changing us old men.

I've always said, if I ever get that novel finished, I'm going to sell the screen rights and walk away and never look back at the hatchet job they might do to it. Just take the bucks to the bank and move on. I hope Clive can somehow feel that when (it's enevitable) that they do blow it. Sigh.

Hi y'all: just found these boards, so glad to be here!

Anyway, I heard that the subplot in "Sahara" of Lincoln and the Confederate Ironclad were cut out of the script and that this was what was part of Mr.Cussler's dispute with the script. Has this subplot been reinserted? These little historical bites are what I completely LOVE about the Clive's novels. My first Dirk Pitt novel was Sahara back that I read in '92 when I was 17. Until then, I had never read novels for pleasure. I owe my book reading life to this man, Clive Cussler. If this production company can't understand what kind of fans we are...I fully support Mr.Cussler in telling them to screw-off. I would rather NOT see Dirk Pitt in action on the big screen UNLESS Cussler has COMPLETE dictatorial control over it. KISS SOME ASS CLIVE AND GIVE 'EM HELL!!!

Thanks everyone for reading my little tidbit.

(ps. I rented "Raise the Titanic" several years ago and almost vomited).

I agree that the book should be done as it was writen, in todays blockbuster especially the movies that have been taken from the books they have been very close to the books, Harry Potter and then of course Lord of the Rings. I hope that the studio also relizes this and gives Clive what he has requested in order to maintain the integrity of his books and that of his fan base.

I so think that Mathew and steve Zahn will be a great tean and will really make this movie do well, of course it is also the time when no name actors are making there mark especially when the budget to make the film is so high, who can afford to pay them 20 and 3o million a picture.
well that was my two cents yet again

I CAN'T WAIT TILL THE MOVIE OPENS. w: I HEAR CLIVE WILL BE IN IT IN A CAMEO. HE'LL STEAL THE SHOW! snor: