A budget that doubled to $160M and a lawsuit with its own author sank Sahara

Philip Anschutz's Bristol Bay Productions paid $10 million for the film rights to Clive Cussler's novel Sahara and, unusually, granted Cussler creative control over the script, director and cast selection as part of the deal, a concession the studio would come to regret.

Production costs doubled during filming, from an original $80 million estimate to roughly $160 million, as the arrangement with Cussler and other production issues extended the shoot and inflated the budget well past its original plan.

Sahara grossed about $119 million worldwide, recovering only a fraction of its roughly $240 million combined production and distribution cost. The studio then sued Cussler for fraud, alleging he had inflated his book sales figures to secure the deal; a jury found Cussler had breached his contract and ordered him to pay $5 million, later increased to $13.9 million in legal fees.