"Sahara" follows master explorer Dirk Pitt (McConaughey) and his sidekick Al (Zahn) as they try and track down a missing Civil War battleship. Their search is interrupted when the two adventurers meet up with the beautiful Dr. Eva Rojas (Cruz) who enlists their help to find out what's killing thousands of people in Africa.
With the release of "Sahara" on DVD set for August 30, 2005, director Breck Eisner took a break between meetings to speak to me about what we can expect from the DVD and the status of a possible sequel:
What are the plans for a sequel? Is there one in the works right now?
“Well, yes, we sure hope to be doing one and I think a lot of that depends on actually how we do on DVD. You know, we’ve done well box office and we want to continue to do well on DVD. And if all things do go well, because it’s an expensive movie, then we will do another one. There are 18 books so we have a lot of source material to pull from.”
Which book would be next?
“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.”
Is the script done?
“No, the script is being written as we speak.”
Have all the stars from “Sahara” signed on to a sequel?
“Yeah. Matthew [McConaughey], Steve Zahn, Bill Macy, and Rainn Wilson are all under three-picture deals.”
And you’ll definitely be directing the sequel?
“Yes, I would love to direct the next one. So if it goes, I’ll be doing it, for sure.”
Will the sequel be the next thing you direct?
“It depends on the timing. I’m taking another movie fairly soon while we finish developing this movie. Hopefully the plan will be I do another movie while we continue writing and developing and scouting this, and I go into the next Sahara after that.”
Tackling “Sahara,” you really had to walk a fine line. You had to satisfy fans of the novels plus make an entertaining movie for people who aren’t familiar with the Clive Cussler books.
“You’re absolutely right. That was a major issue for us. But the biggest challenge is clearly the fact that the book is 700+ pages and the movie is only two hours so it was a real challenge to get as much as we could from the book into the movie. Obviously with that discrepancy of length, there’s no way we could get everything. So, for me, the main focus was to make sure I was true to the characters and to their relationship and to really put the majority of the focus into that relationship and to that dynamic.”
Was there much you couldn’t include that you hated to lose?
“Oh yeah, there were lots of things. One of the openings with Kitty Mannock although it’s on the DVD, it wasn’t on the initial release of the movie. And there were also some elements that were just too expensive that we couldn’t afford, although we spent a lot of money doing it. There were some elements that were just beyond our ability to do in the movie.”
Do you shoot extra content/scenes with bonus content for the DVD in mind?
“Well, when I’m making it, it’s not…. You know, you’re hoping that everything you shoot will be in the movie. But it’s inevitable that by the time you get through cutting, some things are going to disappear. The hope is that they are good scenes that you can include in the DVD itself. But what I was thinking about from the beginning is the behind the scenes type footage.
Actually, we had a woman named Georgia Irwin who was on the film from the beginning of production, of prep; just documenting everything we were doing. That really helped make a much more interesting behind-the-scenes, and a much more intensive, behind-the-scenes documentary.”
Do you find you’re more guarded when there’s someone around specifically shooting behind the scenes footage?
“No. In the beginning you think about it, and then after about five minutes you’ve forgotten that someone’s there with a camera. You’re so focused on getting the movie right that you’ve completely lost any sense of perception of someone watching you.”
Could you have possible chosen more difficult shooting locations?
(Laughing) “It would be difficult to find a more challenging place to shoot. I mean Morocco is an incredible place. I had an amazing time shooting there. The crews and the support were incredible, but it is amazingly remote.
We’re out on the edge of the Sahara Desert, in southern Morocco on the border of Algeria, and it’s a very remote, challenging place and the elements are really intense. And if you need something - if you need a piece of equipment or other support, you’ve got to bring it in. There’s no equipment rental there. There’s no camera servicing there. We had to bring everything with us and all the people and all the equipment, which we trucked in from Europe. So it takes a lot of prep and a lot of planning to make sure you don’t forget something.”
Page 2: On Action Sequences, Camels, and Stunts
