Hi, everyone. I'm Em, and welcome to Verbal Diorama, Episode 304, Cutthroat Island. This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies, you know and movies you don't. Hosted by the host the Wishes She'd Never Learned Latin. Because I did learn Latin for a year at high school. It was mandatory. And for that one year of Latin, I got my first and only commendation from high school. But no, I won't be translating your treasure map because the text is actually mirrored, not in Latin. Welcome to Verbal Diorama. Whether you're a brand-new listener, whether you're a regular returning listener, thank you for being here. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast. As always, I'm so happy to have you here for the history and legacy of Cutthroat Island. Thank you to everyone who listens to this podcast, who supports this podcast and has done for the last, oh, six years, nothing and 300 episodes minor. Thank you for your support. It genuinely means so much to me and you guys who are listening to this episode and other episodes are the reason why I continue to do this podcast. So I'm so happy to be here. I'm so excited to be here, mostly because Cutthroat island has been a long time coming to this podcast, and I've held off on purpose, but then I just felt like I couldn't really hold off anymore, and it's like, you might as well just do these things. So I figured, why not baby Kaijune? There's obviously a little thing that I did last month that was really cute, right? Just a couple of giant monster creatures with big teeth out to kill people for lolz. I am planning for Kaijune to return, and also planning for it to be a lot bigger than it was this June. So let me know what you'd like to see included next time around. Obviously, we're talking June 2026 for this, but I will say that chances of an Anaconda or Lake Placid sequel are slim to none. I'll be honest. But we are staying on the water because who doesn't love to film stuff in, on and around water? Because it's so easy. Why don't more movies do it? In fact, pirate movies. Why doesn't Hollywood make more pirate movies? Everyone knows pirates, and Disney certainly wasn't the first to take a punt on a pirate movie. But while they were hugely popular in the 30s and 40s, the 80s was a rough time at sea for the cinematic pirate and the 90s. Well, we've all heard the tales of Cutthroat island, but did it really sink a studio? And did it really take a barrel of gunpowder to the careers of Rennie Harlin and Geena Davis? Or is the humble pirate movie just a poison chalice? And what did Spider-Man have to do with the making of Cutthroat Island? I guess we need to jump on board and find out. So here's the trailer for Cutthroat Island.

Morgan Adams is a pirate captain who inherits part of a treasure map from her dying father from his skull. To find the legendary treasure, she must obtain the remaining pieces of the map from her treacherous uncles, Mordecai Fingers and Douglas Dawg Brown, who want to kill her and claim the treasure for themselves. Morgan teams up with a roguish conman and alleged doctor, William Shaw, though his loyalty remains questionable. Throughout their adventure, they race across the Caribbean against Dawg to find the elusive Cutthroat island first and claim the booty. And let's be honest, everyone just wants to hear an English person saying the word booty. Let's run through the cast of this movie. We have Geena Davis as Morgan Adams, Matthew Modine as William Shaw, Frank Langella as Douglas Dawg Brown, Maury Chaykin as John Reed, Patrick Malahide as Ainsley, Stan Shaw as Glasspool, Rex Lin as Mr. Blair, and Harris Yulin as Black Harry Adams. Cuthbert island has a screenplay by Robert King and Mark Norman, story by Michael Frost Beckner, James Gorman, Bruce A. Evans and Raynal Gideon, and was directed by Rennie Harlin. Ahoy me hearties. Avast. Dead men tell no tales, There'll be no parlay. Hiya else, I'll send you to Davy Jones Locker. We've got us some legendary booty here, savvy? It may not glimmer like regular treasure, but treasure it is all the same. Gar. Cutthroat island is infamous for many reasons. Infamous for sinking a studio. Infamous for being a Guinness Book of World Records record holding box office flop. Only one of those is true though, and as is customary for this podcast, I feel like Cutthroat island has for too long had a reputation that this was a huge 90s shipwreck and that bringing a woman aboard a ship is bad luck. Well, maybe it was bad luck, but as the captain of this ship add the token woman, I'm here to fly the flag for a 90s pirate movie that always seems to end up on people's lists of movies to ridicule for no good reason. There's a lot that went wrong for Cutthroat island, much of it not the movie's fault. The blame includes other parties like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Spider-Man. But there's also a lot that went right and this year is Cutthroat Island's 30th anniversary. But to start our story, we need to go back to the golden age of pirates on screen, which began in the 1930s and peaked in the 1940s. Errol Flynn essentially defined the swashbuckling genre with 1935's Captain Blood and 1940s the Seahawk. Both were major box office successes. These films established the template for romantic, adventurous pirate stories that audiences embraced. Flynn possessed the perfect combination of athletic grace, roguish charm and romantic appeal. He could handle sword fights with balletic elegance while maintaining an air of dangerous sexuality that appealed to both male and female audiences. Flynn's on screen partnership with Olivia de Havilland created some of cinema's most memorable romantic chemistry. And these pirate films were among the most technically ambitious of their time. Warner Brothers and other studios invested heavily in elaborate ship sets, spectacular sea battles and innovative camera work. The Sea Hawk featured some of the most impressive naval combat sequences ever filmed, using miniatures, full scale ship replicas and clever editing to create breathtaking action. Studios spared no expense on these productions. They had elaborate costumes, detailed period sets and careful attention to nautical detail to give these films credibility. The pirate genre began losing steam in the 50s as audience tastes shifted. However, there were still occasional successes, such as the crimson pirate in 1952 with Burt Lancaster. The genre was considered outdated and campy. By the late 1970s, swashbuckling adventure seemed quaint compared to the grittier, more realistic action films that were becoming popular, like Dirty Harry, the French Connection and later in the 80s, Die Hard, which all represented a new kind of action hero, more contemporary, more thoughtful and psychologically complex than the romantic rogues of the Golden Age. The success of science fiction following Star wars and the rise of contemporary action films meant studios were investing their big budget elsewhere. Why would you make a period pirate film when you could make a modern thriller or a space opera? By the time the 80s rolled around, the success of adventure films like the Indiana Jones series suggested that audiences still enjoyed old fashioned pulpy adventure. But while studios were still attempting pirate movies, they still struggled at the box office. The pirate movie in 1982 was perhaps the most notable attempt. It was a musical comedy starring Christopher Atkins and Christy McNichol that was both a critical and commercial disaster. This was followed by attempts like the ice Pirates in 1984 and Roman Polanski's Pirates in 1986, both of which were also financial disappointments, with only the Goonies and the Princess Bride containing pirate themes and swashbuckling elements being both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. There hadn't been a major pirate film in decades, but one studio may have seen it as more of an untapped market than a dead genre. That studio was Carolco. But before we get into the story of Carolco, which I know for a fact, I have pronounced over the years as Carolco as well as Korolko, but you know me and my pronunciations, I do try my best. Before we go into that, we have to Start with the original script from the writing team of James Gorman and Michael Frost Beckner. They had a development deal with Disney and they pitched to Disney a darkly comic pirate strip as a potential Pirates of the Caribbean movie in the early 90s. Michael Eisner turned this idea down. It was then pitched to Carolco, who bought it for $1.7 million. Carolco was founded in 1976 by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, two entrepreneurs who initially focused on foreign sales and distribution. Their breakthrough came with understanding how to leverage foreign pre sales to finance big budget productions. This was a relatively new model at the time that allowed them to compete with major studios without the major studio resources. Their first major success was First Blood in 1982, which they acquired and helped turn into a surprise hit. This led to First Blood Part 2 in 1985, which became a massive global phenomenon, earning over $300 million worldwide. The success of the Rambo franchise established Korolco as a major player and proved their model could work on a large scale. The golden age of Carolco peaked in the early 90s, which saw them producing some of the decade's biggest action hits like total recall in 1990 with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was both a critical and commercial success. And then the behemoth that was Terminator 2 Judgment Day, which became their crowning achievement. The most expensive film ever made at the time, but also one of the most successful. Grossing over $500 million worldwide and setting new standards for visual effects. Carolco would sell distribution rights to foreign territories before production began, using that money to finance films. This allowed them to make big budget movies independently, but it also meant they were constantly levering future revenues against current productions. The model worked brilliantly when films were hits like Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Terminator 2. But it created enormous financial pressure when they weren't movies like Johnny Hansen, Music Box, Air America and Mountains of the Moon, which were all financial disappointments. Unlike major studios with diverse revenue streams and large libraries of content, Carolco was essentially betting everything on each individual film. And this was starting to become a huge issue. When films failed to meet projections, there was no corporate cushion to absorb the losses. Plus they'd set a dangerous precedent for themselves with huge bankable stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. By the early 90s, staff salaries and production costs were spiraling upward. And to secure top talent, they had to pay larger salaries. Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly received $15 million for total recall. And because of this huge increase in salary, other studios started to follow suit and pay bigger salaries, which then meant that smaller studios were being priced out of the big bankable stars. To mitigate their losses, Carolco began taking on too many expensive projects simultaneously. They were financing multiple 50 plus million dollar films at once, spreading their resources dangerously thin and debts were piling up. Carolco's plans for a Spider man movie also came crashing down in 1993. Listen to my episode on Spider man for more on that. But essentially in April 1992, Korolco stopped an active production on Spider man, citing continued financial and legal issues. Producer Menahem Golan then sued Korolko to revoke his contract with them. Since then, director James Cameron had Golan's executive producer name omitted from the film credits. It was more lawsuits than Kuroco needed and despite them filing suit against Columbia Pictures and Viacom in an effort to gain the home video and TV rights to Spider man, they would then counter sue Carolco and long story short, the courts did not rule in Krolko's favor. The Spider man film rights reverted to Marvel and they were eventually sold to Columbia. And then we got Sam Raimi's Spider man movies. By the time 1994 came around, Carolco needed a big hit and they had a choice between two potential saviors. An Arnold Schwarzenegger starring Paul Verhoeven directed historical epic called Crusade and a pirate movie. There was no way they could afford to have both movies in production at the same time. Crusade was given the green light in 1993 and pre production had already begun on the R rated action epic. Both ideas were expensive, but Crusade was budgeted higher before shooting started. The plug was pulled on Crusade with Schwarzenegger receiving a payoff and they decided to go with the then cheaper pirate adventure which Mario Casar had optioned back in 1990. Just FYI, this movie would not remain the cheaper option for long. This movie is set in 1668 during the golden age of piracy, specifically the Buccaneer Age which focused primarily on the Caribbean. After the 1655 capture of Jamaica by England from Spain, the early English governors of Jamaica freely granted letters of marque to Tortuga buccaneers and to their own countrymen. While the growth of Port Royal provided these raiders with a far more profitable and enjoyable place to sell their booty. These buccaneers called themselves privateers. However, many had no concern for legality and took the opportunity to pillage whether they had a letter of mark or not. Letters of mark were also often forged. Female pirates, while uncommon, did exist in the 17th and 18th centuries. Though they faced significant legal and social barriers, most had to disguise themselves as men to join crews. Initially, as ships were traditionally mail only spaces, those who were discovered often had to prove their worth through exceptional skill in combat or navigation to remain aboard. While piracy itself was illegal. Regardless of gender, women could sometimes escape the death penalty through pregnancy claims or by arguing they were coerced. Some operated under letters of marque as privateers, which gave them semi legal status when attacking enemy vessels during wartime. While Cutthroat Island's premise of a female pirate captain wasn't historically impossible, it would have been extremely rare. Just as rare are female action leads in Hollywood movies. And while they are nothing new, both Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton had established the template and made significant impact as women who could be both tough leaders as well as sympathetic heroes. There were exceptions to the general rule that men dominated the action genre. But generally, as in most things in life, there were only a handful of exceptions. And I want to start this section of the episode by saying vehemently, truthfully and honestly, the Cutthroat island is not a bad movie. It's just not. It's not a great movie, but it's no bad movie. And the reception that this movie got is simply unjustifiable. When you see what's on screen, and let's be honest, we're going to talk about finances, the money is clearly there on screen. This is an expensive movie, but the money is visible. But first Carolco had to figure out where to get this money from. So before a frame of film was shot, Carolco obtained $50 million by aggressively selling to overseas distributors at Japan's Pioneer Electric Corporation, Canal plus in France, Rizzoli, editor of Italy, and the French bank Credit Lyonnaise, who paid upfronts for the rights to show the movie. And this was a movie that could easily be sold too. It was going to be directed by Renny Harlin, director of Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. Cliffhanger was also a Carolco picture and it also had been gruelling. Tristar had to step in to co finance that movie due to Carolco's existing debts. In 1989, Mario Kassar had parted ways with his founding partner Andrew G. Vajna, who'd been paid $100 million for his share in the company. In 1991, Carolco posted a loss of $265 million. They restructured in 1992 and sold off shares in 1993. Their only chance to survive was to have a box Office hit in 1995, this pirate movie had to be a winner. There was no other option. Carolco was out of money. This was it. So in many ways, Cutthroat island was set up for failure right from the get go. To lead this pirate movie, Renny Harlin pushed for his then girlfriend, Geena Davis, who had been mostly known for comedic and dramatic roles. There was no doubting that Davis had the looks. By the time filming started, Harlin and Davis had married and they referred to the film as their honeymoon, the perfect way to start married life. Spoiler alert. The pair divorced a few years later in 1997. Not because of the failure of this movie, they'd actually go on to work together on the long kiss goodnight after Cutthroat Ireland, but because Rennie Harlin had an affair with Geena Davis, personal assistant, and fathered a child with her. Yeah, that'll do it. But before all that, Harlin wanted to supercharge Davis's career and saw making an action movie the ideal use of both of their talents. Haran was great at spectacle and Davis was coming off of A League Of Their Own, the best sports movie ever made. She'd done a lot of her own baseball stunts for that movie. The logical next step was, of course, Pirates. The production also managed to nab Michael Douglas, then Hart off of Basic Instinct for the role of William Shaw, a roguish Errol Flynn like con artist who steals Morgan's treasure map and then her heart. While Geena Davis's salary for Cutthroat island has never been published, Michael Douglas was offered $13 million to play William Shaw and he saw the role as another Romancing the Stone. Douglas had two conditions. Filming needed to start immediately and his character had to have the exact same amount of screen time as Geena Davis. In Romancing the Stone, Michael Douglas was very much the lead actor, with Kathleen Turner playing second to him, and he wanted this dynamic for Cutthroat island. And he's literally just been completely outshone on screen for Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. However, as the script developed, Davis's part kept getting bigger and he's smaller. Douglas asked for the male part to be beefed up, but when the director is married to the lead actor, that lead actor in this case was not Michael Douglas. So Douglas left the movie when he realised he would be second billing to Geena Davis, who, while she was a reasonably big name at the time, she wasn't. Compared to the name Michael Douglas, the now vacant role of William Shaw became a bit of a poison chalice. Though, because which white male a list actor in Hollywood would want to play second fiddle to the director's wife? Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Liam Neeson, Jeff Bridges, Ralph Fiennes, Charlie Sheen, Michael Keaton, Tim Robbins, Daniel Day Lewis, Kurt Russell and Gabriel Byrne were all offered it, and they all passed. And so, with the greatest respect to Matthew Modine, they went with a less than a list actor. Significantly less bankable than Douglas, but 15 years his junior. Modine was best known for his leading role in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and in Memphis Belle. It was a necessary casting on many levels. They needed a man for the role, and at this point, they needed someone cheap. Modine fit both of those, and he also had experience fencing. Ironically, the state of play was so desperate by this point that both Harlin and Davis wanted to leave the production. However, they both signed contracts, so they had no choice but to continue. They were not the only ones. They were so concerned about the script at that point that Renny Harlin personally spent a million dollars of his own money to hire Mark Norman to perform script rewrites. Harlin was allowed to complete other commitments. As pre production on Cutthroat island began, set designers and builders were sent to Malta weeks before Harlin arrived. They built entire streets without the director's approval because he wasn't around. So when Harlin finally arrived in Malta, he didn't like any of the work and demanded it be changed to how he wanted it, which obviously led to more cost. A thousand feet of buildings along the quayside in Malta needed new facades erected to double as port Royal in 1668. The set changes in Malta and the increasingly desperate search for a male lead caused morale both on and off set to sink lower than Davy Jones locker. As the date approached for the cameras to roll, several senior people involved with the film decided to abandon ship, including producer David Nichols, who regularly argued with Harlin, and chief camera operator Nicola Pecorini, who was fired by Harlin after a tussle. Pecorini took two dozen other crew members who were tired of Harlin's outbursts with him. Art director Wolf Kroeger also walked. There were serious injuries on set, too. They used giant tanks in Malta to film certain ocean scene, but in the first week, cinematographer Oliver Wood fell off a crane into one of the tanks, breaking his leg, and had to be replaced by Peter Levy. Matthew Modine needed stitches after getting hit on the head by a rogue barrel in a scene which actually ends up in the movie, but Harlin didn't want to cut Corners. He wanted a full sized, big scale, epic pirate movie unhindered by reality or budget. This would obviously be an issue. The film's two pirate ships, the Morning Star and the Reaper, had 20 working cannons on each side. They were full sized replicas of 17th century ships which cost a million dollars each. They were able to fight full scale sea battles once the tank's hydraulic wave machine was activated. During filming, one of these ships caught fire and disaster was narrowly averted, but production was still suspended for three days. Yet more cost add to the accounts department, Harlin wrote to his crew in a July 1994 leaked memo. I don't want big, I want huge. I don't want fast, I want explosive. I don't want accidents, I want disasters. Broken pipes also cause raw sewage to pour into the water tank where the actors were supposed to swim. Renny Harlin continued to justify the excessive costs, flying in horses from Austria, carpenters from England and stuntmen from Poland. He ordered 2,000 costumes, 309 firearms, 620 swords, 250 daggers and almost 100 custom made axes. The shoot would move from Malta to Thailand to film on the open waters, which as we all know, is especially tricky. And while out there, the movie suffered more delays through injuries and sickness. Most of the crew were hit with stomach bugs from food poisoning, including Harlan and Davis. Matthew Modine was remarkably unscathed as he refused to eat the local seafood. Davis also struggled with exhaustion with the stunt work, leaving her often bruised and sometimes injured after having to do stunts over and over again. And the costs kept climbing. Every scene had three cameras in constant use, resulting in yards and yards of film for every shot. And the lead actor and director were very demanding too, requiring dozens of cases of V8 vegetable juice to be shipped out to Malta only for them to drink. Towards the end of the shoot, an entire room of V8 was left. So to save waste, everyone else on the cast and crew had to drink it. This was confirmed by Matthew Modine several years later. He would also say that Renny Harlin wouldn't actually speak to him because he was so focused on his wife and his wife's performance. And showing his wife in the best possible light, which is admirable as a husband, but if you're a director, you kinda need to direct everyone, not just your wife. Modine had seen the project as a breakout movie for his career, and understandably, he started to express some bitterness after its release. Directed especially towards Harlin and Davis, the indoor scenes were shot at Mediterranean Film Studios in Calcutta, Malta and Models were shot at paddock tank in Pinewood studios here in the uk. The visual effects work included miniature ship models, which were obviously a staple of the golden age of pirate movies. Peter Field worked as a B camera operator on the UK model unit and he was the son of Roy Field who worked on Superman's visual effects. The miniature ships do not age particularly well when watching this movie in high definition, but I kind of love them. Renny Harlin required actors to do their own stunts wherever possible, but this often led to injuries, including Geena Davis narrowly escaping permanent spinal damage. In one of the best stunts in the movie, she fell out of the window too soon, rolled down the roof and under the carriage rather than on the carriage. And this stunt is widely cited as being Davis in the movie and she herself has said that it's her doing the stunt. However, some experts claim the stunt is too complex, containing multiple moving elements for any actor to be allowed to do it. That no insurer would actually cover is definitely her after the hair flips back. However, you also could say it could be a composite shot with Davis taking the place of the stunt person. Either way, it is a brilliant, brilliant stunt and this is where the movie excels the stunts and the action. The film's explosions used traditional pyrotechnics rather than digital effects, which was still in their infancy in 1995. The naval battle sequences with cannon fire and ship explosions required extensive coordination between the special effects team, stunt coordinators and safety personnel, with detailed storyboarding of each explosion sequence, careful placement of pyrotechnic charges, and multiple safety rehearsals. For the ship to ship combat scenes, they used a combination of full scale practical explosions on the actual ship sets and miniature work with model ships. Jim Henson's creature shop also supplied the film with animatronic animals, including the eel puppets. Just on a by note, Renny Harlin loves a good explosion. See also the long Kiss Good Night. Digital effects were used, such as when Matthew Modine and Geena Davis are hanging off the cliff. They digitally erased safety wires and added the crashing waves below them. Some of the digital compositing is seamless and some of the digital effects really show their age. When the production moved to Thailand, they couldn't take the two ships with them, so they built a single ship in Jakarta. But they made it with interchangeable parts so they could use it as two different ships by swapping out the elements, the front and rear, and then used editing and digital compositing to fund these extra costs that Harlan had jacked up. Mario Casa had managed to get an extra $40 million out of a European banking syndicate just to get the film finished, obviously promising that they would definitely get their money back because it was going to be a huge hit. When the shoot finished in Thailand, there was a wrap party on April Fool's Day, but Geena Davis and Renny Harlin didn't attend. Due to the various costly delays, the release date for Cutthroat island was moved from summer 1995 to a much more competitive slot in December. Christmas would not be a jolly time for this movie. Let's segue, though, into the jolliest part of this podcast. It is time for the Obligatory Keanu reference. If you don't know what this is, it's where I try and link every movie that I'm featuring with Keanu Reeves for no reason other than he is genuinely the best of men. And he has continued to be the best of men since, oh, the start of time. And this was remarkably easy because another anus actor who passed on the role of William Shaw was Keanu Reeves. And this would have been literally just after speed for him, possibly replacing either Johnny Mnemonic or A Walk in the Clouds. I recently re watched Johnny Mnemonic after, well, not seeing it since the 90s. And that is a strange beast of a movie. And I don't think I've seen A Walk in the Clouds or if I have, it's not very memorable. Unlike Cutthroat island, which is incredibly memorable, as is Cutthroat Island's score. Now, John Debney's score for Cutthroat island has actually been praised for its style, which is reminiscent of the Golden Age Hollywood swashbuckling scores by Eric Wolfgang Korngold. It's been noted as one of Debney's best compositions. The score uses traditional orchestral backing with a choir and was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with choral contributions by the London Voices and was conducted by David Snell. So we're getting into the release of this movie. They have a pirate movie ready to go and now they need to market that movie. Now, they did do quite a lot of TV spots in America featuring Geena Davis, with her being interviewed, talking about the process of filming. But when it came to actively marketing the movie, post it being finished, there were more problems. Carolco had already spent a lot of money and now their distributor, mgm, is in the process of being sold, so there was no financing for marketing. So this meant that despite the film's massive budget, it lacked the promotional support that a blockbuster of that scale would normally receive. Then, a month before Cutthroat island was due to be released, Carolco finally gave up the ghost and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The bankruptcy filing occurred that while the film was still in its post production and marketing phases, which obviously then severely limited any financial resources that might have been available for promotion because they filed for bankruptcy. Cutthroat island could have been the greatest movie in the world, but there was no one to market it, no money for promotional material, no huge star names to guarantee footfall, and it had cost a hell of a lot of money. So in many ways, Cutthroat island was doomed before it ever set foot in cinemas. Regardless of its quality. Cutthroat island was released on 22 December 1995 in the US in a crowded box office with other movies out at the time, including Toy Story, which was number one after six weeks. Jumanji, which was number three after two weeks. Heat was at number six after two weeks. Goldeneye was at 13th after six weeks. Also out the same week as Cutthroat Island, Waiting to Exhale, Grumpier, Old Men, Sudden Death, Tom and Hook, Dracula Dead and Loving it and Nixon. And all of those movies charted higher than Cutthroat Island. On its debut at the US box office, Cutthroat Ireland was 14th in its second week, it only dropped one place to 15th. But the damage was already done. Cutthroat Ireland was removed from cinemas after just two weeks, and the reason for this was simple bums on seats. Since Cutthroat island was clearly not attracting moviegoers, theatre owners had no financial incentive to continue showing it. So the movie was simply removed. This is when we obviously get into financials and financials for the movie are mixed. Estimates are that the Movie costs between 92 to 98 million dollars, although some sources put the figure as high as 115 million dollars. Box office mojo state 98 million. So that's the one that I'm gonna go with. On its $98 million budget, Cutthroat island grossed $10 million domestically in the US and $6 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $16 million. $98 million in 1995 in today's money is $206 million. Adjusted for inflation, the losses equal 150 to $200 million. Cutthroat Thailand was once listed as having the largest box office loss by the Guinness Book of World Records. The cost of producing, financing, marketing and distributing Cutthroat island totaled $121 million. Carolco lost about 47 million on the project, but most of that was carried by the unfortunate investors who invested in this project. Carolco's chairman, Mario Cassab, did still receive his one million dollar fee for ensuring that Cutthroat island was finished, and he is probably the only person to actually make money off of this movie now, despite it being a bit of a huge financial bomb, critically, A Rotten Tomatoes actually sits at a reasonably decent 40%. Bear in mind this is an aggregate score of the percentage of reviews that are 3 out of 5 or 6 out of 10 or higher, the site's consensus reads. Cutthroat island may aspire towards the earnest thrills of classic swashbucklers, but a distinct lack of charm and stilted script make this adventure a joyless hodgepodge of the pirate genres flotsam and Jetsam. Roger Ebert liked the movie and gave it a three out of four stars, saying, this is in short, a satisfactory movie, but it doesn't transcend its genre and it's not surprising or astonishing. I saw it because that was my job and having seen it, I grant it skill and award it three stars on that basis. But unless you're really into pirate movies, it's not a necessary film. Is that a compliment or? Cutthroat Island did receive a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Director for Renny Harlin. He did not win. It's unfortunate. Out of 6 worst director Golden Raspberry Award nominations, he's never had the privilege of winning for anything. So he was nominated in 1991 for the Adventures of Ford Farlane, in 1996 for Cutthroat island, in 2002 for Driven, in 2005 for Exorcist, the Beginning, in 2015 for the Legend of Hercules and in 2022 for the Misfits. Six nominations and no wins for Renny Harlin for Worst Director. I'm sure he's very upset about that. Of course, there were no sequels to Cutthroat island and there probably never will be. And unsurprisingly, no remakes of Cutthroat island and there probably never will be. And so that's the story of Cutthroat island and that was the end of Carolco. Sort of. The studio that had produced hits like Terminator 2, Basic Instinct and Total Recall was completely destroyed by the financial losses. Two months after Showgirls, which they sold off in pre production to United Artists and Pathe, and one month after Cutthroat Island, Korolco was over. But Carolco's demise was never down to Cutthroat Island. Cutthroat island was the patsy. Carolco was doomed years before Cutthroat island, and it feels vastly unfair to shift the blame for the financial decisions made by Korolko's management to a movie that didn't ask to get made, don't blame the child for the decisions of the parent, etc. Cutthroat island was wildly ambitious and tried to give us something we're always asking for something new, something different. But just like every other female headlined action movie, they always have to prove something else. They'll forever be deemed a failure and must also prove something. Even after years of female led action blockbusters like Kill Bill, Charlie's Angels, Atomic Blonde, the Hunger Games, Lucy, Star Wars, Episode 7, the Force Awakens, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, there still exists in Hollywood this idea that every big female led movie is it just here to test the box office credibility of movies by, for, from and featuring women. And every time one of those movies underperforms in any way, they cite Catwoman, Aeon Flux, Barb Wire and Ultraviolet. Because a male led action movie is allowed to underperform, but a female led one just isn't. And those that succeed are quickly forgotten about as soon as one does. Bomb it is a heinous double standard that's getting better over time, but it's still not great. As with many movies that end up box office bombs, it's often not the movie itself that's the problem, but the politics behind the scene. I'm going to say it again for the people in the back. Cutthroat island is not a bad movie. It has some severe scripting character problems, but it looks gorgeous in parts, the stunts and practical effects are incredible, and it shines most when it's just allowed to exist without the talking. And again, I mean that with the utmost respect to these actors, but with the exception of Franklin Geller, who's clearly relishing every moment on screen, everyone else is kind of struggling. Geena Davis gives it some real gusto, but she's never really allowed to truly embrace being a pirate. Presumably because she was worried about her image. Cutthroat island was automatically the poster child for women can't lead action movies as well as pirate movies of box office poison. And yet we know both aren't true. So why does Cutthroat island still retain this unfortunate label? And this is where I think the tides are finally turning. When the movie bombed, it was the nail in the coffin for pirate movies until despite being reminded of Cutthroat Island's failure, Disney produced 2003's Pirates of the the Curse of the Black Pearl, which is a terrific movie. It still holds up today and has produced several sequels of varying quality. Cutthroat island was a cautionary tale of don't do it this way rather than any other form of inspiration. Making Elizabeth a pirate by necessity rather than starting her out as one, as well as Disney having full and complete financial backing before attempting to make a costly disaster like Carolco did. And I still maintain this is a fun movie. If they'd attempted to write Morgan Adams with a bit more personality, Geena Davis career trajectory may have been different. Her attempt to break into action movies was ambitious but risky. Who's to say if it would have been better with Michael Douglas? But the chemistry between Davis and Matthew Modine is non existent. No one is well written in this movie because this is a bad script. Even when she and Harlin tried again with the Long Kiss Good Night the year later. While it managed to become a moderate success, the spirit of Cutthroat island haunted Davis for years afterwards. Even Harlin only really had one big success after this, and that was Deep Blue Sea in 1999. Matthew Modine also struggled after this movie, although he then got a prime role in Stranger Things, so he's doing okay from it. Geena Davis now chairs the Geena Davis Institute, which provides research, direct guidance and thought leadership aimed at increasing representation of marginalized groups within six identities gender, race and ethnicity, lgbtqia, disability, age and body type. We love Geena Davis and we love Cutthroat Island. So where is Carolco now? Well, after filing for bankruptcy, Carolco sold its assets to CanalPlus for $58 million in 1996. Today, the ancillary rights to Carolco's library up to 1995 are held by the French production company Studio Canal. The company's founders, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, reunited in 1998 and formed C2 Pictures. The company would produce Terminator 3, Rise of the Machines and Basic Instinct 2, neither of which were brilliant financial successes. Film producer Alexander Baither purchased the Carolco name and logo and on the 20th of January 2015 he renamed his production company Bricktop Productions to Carolco Pictures. He then recruited Mario Kassar as the chief development executive of the new Carolco. But in 2017, Studio Canal filed a legal dispute over the Carolco brand. Studio Canal and the new Corelco reached an agreement whereby Studio Canal would have sole control of the Carolco name and logo, and the Carolco Pictures company would be renamed Recall Studios. So Carolco is pretty much still dead, but Cutthroat island is not. And as I said, the tide is seemingly turning for Cutthroat Island. After 30 years of critical bashing and blame for sinking a studio, people are re evaluating this movie and giving it its dues. It recently had a 4K UHD steelbook release, and the fact is, getting a premium 4K UHD release suggests that there's enough of a fan base to justify that release. Simply put, Cutthroat island is a well crafted adventure film that was unfairly dismissed due to its commercial circumstances rather than its actual quality. It's a swashbuckling pirate flick in the finest tradition, full of fighting and brawling, epic stunts and explosions, swords and cannons, huge, elaborately detailed ships and gorgeous ocean vistas. It's time to reconsider it. It's time to re evaluate it. And honestly, it's time it got the love it deserves. If Showgirls can become a cult classic re evaluated and adored by its fans, so can Cutthroat Island. It's a movie that was destined to fail. And yet it's no failure. Not to this podcast. To me, this movie is a dream. Don't be a bad dog. It's been 30 years. It's time to give this movie a chance. Drink up me hearties. Yo ho. Thank you for listening. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Cutthroat island and thank you for your continued support of this podcast. If you want to get involved and help this podcast grow, you could tell your friends and family about this podcast. You can leave a rating or review wherever you found this episode or you can find me and follow me on social media. I am@VerbalDiorama where you can like posts, share posts, comment on posts. It all helps with visibility and with getting the general word out there about this podcast and about what I'm trying to do, the stories that I'm trying To tell, the 300 plus episodes of previous stuff that's out there for people to listen to. It would be a huge help if you could support this podcast in some small way. And if you like this episode on Cutthroat island, you might Also like episode 43, A League of Their Own. It is genuinely the best sports movie ever. And episode 88 the Long Kiss Good Night because we might as well talk some more about Rennie Harlin and Geena Davis and the Long Kiss Good Night is also a really fun movie. Rennie Harlin really loves his explosions, man. If you've not seen the Long Kiss Good Night, please find it and watch it and have a listen to that episode and as always, give me feedback on my recommendations. Let me know what you think. So the next episode actually has a link to this one that I was not aware of until I started looking into it a little bit. Because in 1989 Andrew G. Vajna sold his interest in Carolco and he founded Cinergi Pictures. Now Cinergi would have their fair share of box office bombs. They would go on to dissolve in 1998, but they also had their fair share of hits including Die Hard With a Vengeance, Evita and the Next Episode. Just like the pirate genre, Westerns were most popular during the golden age of Westerns, the 40s to the 60s, with spaghetti Westerns popular in the 70s. But the 90s also led to a resurgence of the Western, with Tombstone one of the most successful both critically and and commercially. But it's also got a really interesting story behind the scenes too. So let's look into the history and legacy of Tombstone next week, shall we? Now, if you enjoy what I do for this podcast or you simply want to support an indie podcaster who does everything on her own, if you have some spare pennies you can financially contribute to the upkeep of this podcast, you're under no obligation. This podcast is free and it always will be free. However, if you do get value out of what I do, there are a couple of ways you can help. If you have the means to, and only if you have the means to. You can make a one off donation@verbaldiorama.com tips or you can subscribe to the patreon@verbaldiorama.com patreon and all money made goes back into this podcast by paying for things like website hosting, equipment and software subscriptions. I'm hugely grateful to the amazing patrons of Verbal Diorama. They are Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stuart, Nicholas, so Kev, Heather, Danny, Stu, Brett, Philip M. Zenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle and Aaron. If you want to get in touch you can email verbal dioramail.com or you can go to the feedback form which is@verbaldiorama.com you can say hi. You can give me feedback or suggestions. You can also talk to me about Cutthroat island or just literally any movie that I've ever done. Feel free to have a chat with me about it. I Do respond to every email I receive. And thank you so much to the people who have recently sent me emails. I really love to hear from you, so feel free to get in touch, whether that's on the website or by email or on social media, too. And finally.

What do you got there? Treasure. Bags of it. Be careful what you do. You can lose a lot. Put a ball between his eyes. No, no. My head. It's about £4 million now. Wait, that's a guess. But I can't be off by more than a million pounds or so.

Cut the rope, William. Get away.

William. Let's make a deal. I can be reasonable. Send Morgan down. I'll send the treasure up and we'll both have what we want. All right, William, we have a deal. Here she comes. I wish I'd never learned Latin. We have both. Hold them in.

Don't watch me fall.

I'm coming with you.

Don't be mad.

Why? Don't argue. Let's agree upon something for once. Thank you.

On account of three, then.

Come to me. Morgan.

Wait.

One more thing.

What?

Considering everything, I really think that from now on we should be partners. Full partners. What do you say? 60? 40? 50. 50. Pool partners. Very well. They have a lot to say to each other, don't they? Are you ready now? Ready. One.

Two. Now.

Love. Who can explain it?

Bye.