Sahara 2

[Brian in Mesa]

Breck Eisner on a Possible Sahara 2
Source: About.com
August 1, 2005

While the $130 million-budgeted Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Penelope Cruz, made $119 million worldwide, director Breck Eisner tells About.com that a sequel is still possible.

"Well, yes, we sure hope to be doing one and I think a lot of that depends on actually how we do on DVD," Eisner says about the August 30th DVD release. "There are 18 books so we have a lot of source material to pull from."

He won't reveal which books they're looking at next, however. "I know they have two or three of the books under contract. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone which ones they are yet, sadly."

He did say that "the script is being written as we speak" and that all the stars from the first film would be back. "Matthew [McConaughey], Steve Zahn, Bill Macy, and Rainn Wilson are all under three-picture deals."

 

[Dback Jon]

Would this be Sahara 2, or a Dirk Pitts sequel??

Cussler wrote many books with Dirk Pitts, which seems to be what they are talking about...

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Yeah, it'll be based on another novel and not actually called Sahara 2, but until we know which book...

 

[Ryanwb]

There was a Sahara 1?

 

[Brian in Mesa]

McConaughey on the Future of Dirk Pitt
Source: Edward Douglas
February 11, 2006

At the junket for his new romantic comedy with Sarah Jessica Parker, Failure to Launch, actor Matthew McConaughey talked a bit about where he'd like to see things go with Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt after starring in last year's Sahara. As one of the first major productions for his company j.k. livin productions, it took a lot more time and money to get the action film made before finally being released last April, and while it did satisfactorily, there was some doubt whether it did well enough to warrant a sequel.

"Well, I'd love to return to do Dirk Pitt," McConaughey told ComingSoon.net. "It would be easier to do another Dirk Pitt novel, if we'd have made just even another $10 million dollars. Obviously, in business, you have a budget, and then before it comes out, you have numbers you hope to meet, where you can say, 'We'll do another one if it makes this.' It did well, and it came out in the green, but it was a very expensive movie, as well. It's doing very well on DVD. and it did well internationally, but did it do well enough to make it absolute that we're doing another one? No. Did it do well enough for us to be going 'We might be doing another one, so just be ready'? Yeah, it did."

The big question is whether they can get the rights to do another one of Clive Cussler's novels. "I'm not exactly sure about where it all stands right now," McConaughey responded. "There's some legal stuff going on, but I think you can all depend on it." He wouldn't say which novel that they would want to adapt, but confirmed that they do have one in mind.

 

[Russ Smith]

The problem they're going to have is ANY Cussler novel they pick is going to be an expensive movie. That's what makes the series a great read, the stories are so action packed and set in places that are going to be VERY difficult to film on a low budget.

I had my reservations about Zahn as Giordino but I actually enjoyed the movie.He played the character differently than in the books but it did work.

 

[joeshmo]

I had my reservations about Zahn as Giordino but I actually enjoyed the movie.He played the character differently than in the books but it did work.

Zahn had to meet with the guy Cussler based Giordino on, one of his closest friends. And that guy had to sign off on Zahn before Cussler would let them do the movie. So at least he has the approval of the guy who he is supposed to play.