Cutthroat Island
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Renny Harlin
Produced by	James Gorman Renny Harlin Laurence Mark Joel B. Michaels
Written by	Michael Frost Beckner & James Gorman and Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon (story) Robert King and Marc Norman (screenplay)
Starring	Geena Davis Matthew Modine Frank Langella Maury Chaykin Patrick Malahide Stan Shaw Rex Linn
Music by	John Debney
Cinematography	Peter Levy
Editing by	Derek Brechin Florent Retz Frank J. Urioste Ralph E. Winters
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	December 22, 1995 (USA)
Running time	119 min.
Country	United States  France  Italy  Germany
Language	English
Budget	$92,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$10,017,322 (USA)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Cutthroat Island is a pirate-themed action film starring Geena Davis and directed by her then-husband Renny Harlin, filmed in various locations around Malta. It was released in 1995. Renny Harlin (born Lauri Mauritz Harjola on March 15, 1959 in Riihimäki, Finland) is a film director and producer mostly known for action movies. ... Missing image Photo submitted by Harry Willey Missing image Photo by Terry Macdonald James Gorman was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. ... Renny Harlin (born Lauri Mauritz Harjola on March 15, 1959 in Riihimäki, Finland) is a film director and producer mostly known for action movies. ... Laurence Mark (born in New York City) is an American film producer. ... Missing image Photo submitted by Harry Willey Missing image Photo by Terry Macdonald James Gorman was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. ... Robert King (born 20 June 1906) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the high jump. ... Marc Norman (born Los Angeles, 1941) is an American screenwriter. ... Virginia Elizabeth Geena Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress and former fashion model. ... Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor, perhaps most famous for playing Private Joker in Stanley Kubricks 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket. ... Frank A. Langella, Jr. ... Maury Chaykin (born July 27, 1949) is a Canadian/American actor. ... Patrick Malahide (born March 24, 1945) is an English actor, who has played many major film and television roles. ... Stan Shaw (born July 14, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor. ... Rex Maynard Linn (born November 13, 1956) is an American actor. ... John Debney (born Glendale, California, 18 August 1956) is a prolific American film composer who received an Oscar nomination for his score for Mel Gibson`s The Passion of the Christ. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The year 1995 in film involved some significant events. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... USD redirects here. ... Look up pirate and piracy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... Virginia Elizabeth Geena Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress and former fashion model. ... Renny Harlin (born Lauri Mauritz Harjola on March 15, 1959 in Riihimäki, Finland) is a film director and producer mostly known for action movies. ... The year 1995 in film involved some significant events. ...

Plot

Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) and her learned slave, William Shaw (Matthew Modine), are on a quest to recover the three portions of a treasure map. The treasure is hidden on a mysterious Cutthroat Island. Unfortunately, the final portion is held by her villainous uncle, Douglas ('Dawg') Brown (Frank Langella). Her crew is skeptical of her leadership abilities, so she must complete her quest before they mutiny against her. This is made more difficult by the efforts of the Royal Navy from Jamaica under the command of the self-serving Governor Ainslee (Patrick Malahide) to end her piratical career. On her ship, Morning Star, Morgan starts the voyage to Cutthroat Island. Virginia Elizabeth Geena Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress and former fashion model. ... Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor, perhaps most famous for playing Private Joker in Stanley Kubricks 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket. ... Map created by Robert Lewis Stevenson in Treasure Island A treasure map is a common device used in fictional stories. ... For other uses, see Treasure (disambiguation). ... Frank A. Langella, Jr. ... CREW (acronym) may refer to: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Concurrent Read Exclusive Write, access model for Parallel Random Access Machine Coherent Radiation Emission Weapon, see Directed-energy weapon, Coined by Iain M Banks Categories: ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... Patrick Malahide (born March 24, 1945) is an English actor, who has played many major film and television roles. ...

Production

Michael Douglas was offered $15 million to play the lead role. When he withdrew, the same offer was made to Keanu Reeves (who was busy playing Hamlet in Canada) and Tom Cruise. When Daniel Day Lewis turned the role down, the script was rewritten to make Davis' part bigger and the producers set their casting sights lower. Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Charlie Sheen, Liam Neeson and Tim Robbins all turned down $7 million to take the part before Renny Harlin and Carolco finally agreed on Matthew Modine to star opposite Davis for around $4 million. During one of the major fights of the film, the character played by Matthew Modine is struck in the head with a barrel, an accident that was left in the film. Modine stated he "had stitches for weeks after that endeavor." For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation) Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. ... Keanu Charles Reeves (pronounced ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. ... For other uses, see Hamlet (disambiguation). ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ... Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born April 29, 1957) is a British actor. ... Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. ... Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor, perhaps best known for his early comedic roles in films such as Night Shift, Beetlejuice, and his portrayal of Batman in the two Tim Burton directed films of the series. ... Charles Irwin Sheen (born September 3, 1965) is a Golden Globe Award-winning and Emmy-nominated American actor. ... William John Liam Neeson OBE (born June 7, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated Irish actor. ... Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist, and musician. ... Carolco Pictures, Inc. ... Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor, perhaps most famous for playing Private Joker in Stanley Kubricks 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket. ...

The role of Dawg Brown was originally given to Oliver Reed, however Reed's alcoholism and inappropriate conduct towards Davis during production led to his firing and replacement by Frank Langella. Robert Oliver Reed (February 13, 1938 – May 2, 1999) was an English actor known for his macho image on and off screen. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ...

According to an interview with Empire magazine, Davis and Harlin were both huge fans of V8 juice. When filming wrapped, the crew discovered a truck full of unopened cartons of V8 juice. Modine saw this as indicative of the wasteful excesses of the production. Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Emap Consumer Media since July 1989. ... V8® Vegetable Juice is a trademark name for beverage products made from either eight vegetables or a mixture of both fruits and vegetables. ...

Release

The British release of the film was originally rated 15 (no patron under the age of 15). Distributors decided to target a family audience and so over a minute of film was cut to get a PG certificate. ^[1]

Aftermath and legacy

Cutthroat Island had a budget that approached $100 million and the total U.S. gross was approximately $10 million. It was a contributing factor to the demise of the movie's production company, Carolco Pictures, and of Davis as a bankable star. It is also in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office flop of all time^[2] (although more recent movies such as Stealth lost more than $99 million). The classic 1988 Carolco Pictures logo. ... A bankable star is an actor famous or charismatic enough to be capable of guaranteeing box-office success simply by showing up in a movie. Harris states that a bankable star is one of the 3 minimum ingredients to any film package, the other two being a successful director and... The Guinness Book of Records (or in recent editions Guinness World Records, and in previous US editions Guinness Book of World Records) is a book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of superlatives: both in terms of human achievement and the extrema of the natural world. ... Stealth is a 2005 action/adventure thriller starring Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx. ...

The abject failure of Cutthroat Island is also credited with significantly reducing the bankability and Hollywood production of piracy-themed films, both of which only recovered with the production of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. ... Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a movie of adventure and romance set in the Caribbean during the seventeenth century. ... The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. ...

References

External links

• Cutthroat Island at the Internet Movie Database