How Matthew McConaughey Convinced Clive Cussler He Could Be Dirk Pitt

Posted on April 6, 2005

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting article (link no longer available) about why it took so long for Clive Cussler's Sahara to make it to the silver screen, and how the movie-making process can be frustrating for book authors.

In developing the film's screenplay, Karen noted, "we worked very closely with Clive and made it a point that every writer on the picture met with Clive and kept him up to speed every step of the way. I think it was a bit of a frustrating process (for Cussler) because with most of the scripts there were several writers involved and that was a time consuming process. I think for a writer who is used to sitting down and writing his novels quickly that was a source of some frustration. But ultimately we wound up with a script that is very loyal to his book and that people seem to really be responding well to."

Matthew McConaughey stars as the legendary explorer Dirk Pitt. Producer Howard Baldwin talks about how McConaughey got the part. McConaughey had read all the books and he had taken a trip into the Sahara like Pitt does in the novel.

Matthew had gone to Mali (the former Sudanese Republic in western Africa, southwest of Algeria) and into the Sahara and had actually taken the trip that Dirk Pitt takes in the Sahara book. That's how passionate he was about it. I think when Clive heard that, it's pretty hard to discount that kind of passion."

But to clinch the deal, McConaughey had to promise Cussler that he'd darken his hair, so he'd really look like the author's concept of his fictional character. Now that's what we call author power.