Telegraph.co.uk

'I won't let them ruin my book'
(Filed: 23/02/2004)
 

Why is Clive Cussler determined to sink a £100 million Hollywood adaptation of one of his bestselling adventure novels? Michael Shelden finds out

If Clive Cussler has his way, one of Hollywood's biggest film projects will soon grind to a halt. Now shooting on location in the Moroccan desert at a whopping cost of more than £100 million, Sahara is based on Cussler's bestselling novel featuring his adventure hero Dirk Pitt - often described as part James Bond, part Indiana Jones - and stars Matthew McConaughey as Dirk and Penelope Cruz as glamorous girlfriend Eva.

 
"I don't know whose book they think they're adapting," Cussler tells me, at his home outside Phoenix, Arizona, "but it sure isn't mine. I can't approve what they're doing. I've thrown away all the scripts they've sent me - seven or eight so far - and told them to go back and follow the book. But they refuse. They insist on doing it their way."
 

But isn't that what the big Hollywood studios always do?
    

"Not according to my contract. I have absolute script approval. It's all there in black and white. I've told them I don't approve, but they've decided to ignore me and shoot their script anyway. I'm not going to let them."

Clive Cussler: a crusty character

A crusty character with a weathered face and a seafarer's squint, Cussler, 72, is not a man to be trifled with. His widely popular novels - his new one, Golden Buddha, the first in an adventure series called The Oregon Files, is published next month - have sold 150 million copies in 40 languages and have made the author a very wealthy man. To say the least, he has the resources to give Hollywood quite a fight.

"They may have thought I wouldn't sue them, but that's exactly what I'm doing now. And I didn't just go out and get some local lawyer to do it. I got one of the best guys in Los Angeles to argue my case, a guy who really knows what he's doing."

Last month, Cussler's lawyer went to court seeking an injunction to stop the film and asking for £6 million in damages. The novelist is confident he will prevail, but his opponent is not the usual faceless Hollywood conglomerate. Three years ago, the film rights to Sahara were acquired by billionaire oilman Philip Anschutz, who owns the largest chain of cinemas in America and has started a new company, Crusader Entertainment, to make "family" films. The company has declined to comment publicly on the dispute with Cussler.

A religious conservative who divides his time between California and Denver, Anschutz is known in America for his strong opposition to gay rights legislation and, in this country, for his recent acquisition of the Millennium Dome. Given the extent of their respective fortunes and the nature of their strong-willed personalities, Cussler vs Anschutz promises to be a very interesting battle of titans.

Which is why I am a bit taken aback when I arrive at Cussler's door and discover that this colossus of the literary marketplace lives rather modestly. His home is an attractive but not very luxurious little oasis in an ordinary suburb. There are no limos parked outside, no security staff patrolling the grounds. I simply pull into his drive, get out and ring the doorbell.

He has a housekeeper during the week, but she has gone shopping and the great man answers the door himself. As one of his friends has remarked, Cussler tends to dress and act like the "neighborhood handyman". Today, he is wearing a loose-fitting shirt and faded jeans. His silver hair is sparse on top and carelessly parted.

With his hands in his pockets, he leads me back to his office, which is dimly lit and crammed to the ceiling with various editions of his books in many languages.

For 47 years, he was blessed with the help of a devoted wife, Barbara. But she died early last year of breast cancer aged 69. Her death left an enormous hole in his life and - except when the subject turns to filmmaking - he has the subdued manner of someone who is still grieving.

He is the father of three grown children, one of whom lives nearby. But for much of his time these days he is alone, writing his books and doing his best to protect them from exploitation.

The only one of his novels that has made it to the screen is Raise the Titanic, which went belly up within days of its release in 1980. Alec Guinness was miscast in a minor part, and the hero, Dirk, was played by a forgettable actor called Richard Jordan.

Cussler shudders as he recalls how the story of a disaster at sea led to one of another kind at the box office.

"Except for the soundtrack by John Barry, that film was awful, really awful. I'm determined that kind of thing won't happen again. That's why I'm suing now, to stop these people from ruining Sahara. And that's why I asked for script approval in the first place. I was trying to keep from having another disaster on my hands."

In the case of Raise the Titanic, he was up against a mogul every bit as headstrong as Anschutz - the cigar-chomping Lord Grade, whose production company lost so much money on the film that he famously quipped: "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic."

Because his books have done so well, Cussler is in the enviable position of not having to dance to anyone else's tune. He writes what he wants and is unapologetic about his formulaic approach to modern adventure. Though his hero is a skilled sailor and deep-sea diver with lots of high-tech equipment at hand, Dirk is essentially an old-fashioned swashbuckler who saves damsels in distress and does battle with remorseless villains for high stakes.

In younger days, the novelist enjoyed an active life not unlike his hero's. For many years, he spent much of his spare time hunting for shipwrecks and sunken treasure with a small band of hardy explorers. They formed a non-profit organisation, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which is also the name of the group that sponsors Dirk's adventures in the novels.

When Clive drank Cutty Sark and smoked, so did Dirk. When he gave up cigarettes and switched from whisky to gin, so did his hero. They are both the same height (6ft 3in) and have the same blue-green eyes. A faithful husband, Clive didn't overplay Dirk's love life and kept the romantic scenes squeaky clean.

"I want to reach a large audience - young and old, male and female - and you can't do that if your books aren't reasonably clean. What I give my readers is straightforward adventure. That's what they want, and they don't often get it in our culture. I'm not a literary novelist. I'm an entertainer. That's good enough for me."

Readers like the air of authenticity that gives weight to his sometimes outlandish plots. He is proud of the fact that people get solid information about the sea from his novels. One young fan told him that he had escaped drowning in a riptide because he recalled Dirk's method of using a sidestroke to swim out of danger.

And, of course, Cussler's great success at finding shipwrecks has given his work an appeal that is irresistible to anyone who loves a good hunt. He has made several notable finds, including the Carpathia (torpedoed a few years after rescuing survivors of the Titanic) and the long-lost submarine of the Confederate Navy, the Hunley, which sank more than 100 years ago off the coast of South Carolina.

He discovered the winning formula of his fiction when he was a young advertising executive in California, 30 years ago. He liked market research and used it to analyse the book market. After reading all the popular authors of the day - especially the thriller writers - he decided that his hero would find most of his thrills not on mean streets but at the bottom of blue oceans and in exotic lands.

"I grew up a beach bum and knew the ocean. In the air force, I was stationed in Hawaii and had taken up deep-sea diving. So I decided to write about what I knew, add some research and try to create exciting plots. It was slow getting started, but when it took off, it really took off."

Indeed it did. So much so that he now reportedly receives an advance of £4 million for every new book. For someone who grew up in the Great Depression and was the child of a German-American father with limited means, Cussler has found that he now has more money than he can possibly spend. "I give some away, I use some for hunting shipwrecks. But most of it now goes into a trust for my children."

He holds up his hands and looks down at his faded jeans. "I mean, look at me. What good is a lot of money to someone like me? The only thing I like to spend it on is cars, and I have enough of those."

Like Dirk Pitt, Cussler loves old automobiles. He keeps only one at home - a 1954 Jaguar XK120 - but has more than 80 in storage at a warehouse. The collection - his one extravagance - includes everything from a 1921 Rolls to rare Duesenbergs, Cords, Bugattis and Pierce-Arrows.

Most of the photographs of him on his book jackets show him posing with one of his cars. "I think the cars are better looking than I am, and people would rather see them than me."

In fact, he is mobbed by fans whenever he appears in public, which is not often. For a popular author of his stature, his face is not widely known, and he finds that he can still enjoy a great deal of anonymity.
"I don't have strangers following me around. Only two people have ever showed up at my door unannounced, and they were just a couple of harmless bankers from Ohio. In airports, I see readers with my books all the time, but nobody pays much attention to me."

The one question that seems to intrigue his fans most is why an old sailor chooses to live in the Arizona desert.

"That's simple. I grew up in California and have had enough of that life. But I still want to be in a warm climate. So here I am."

He is slowing down and would like to retire, but says that too many people still need his help, and he can't stop writing. His wife's death has left him thinking more and more about his own passing. She was the centre of his world and he misses her.

"She was great at keeping things in perspective. She always encouraged me to write, but she used to tell me in the early days: 'Don't get your hopes up. Your books might not catch on.' She was right to be cautious. It was tough going at first."

He reaches across his desk and shows me a picture of his wife's grave, and tells me that he will be buried next to her. There is an inscription on his side of the headstone. He reads it aloud: "It was a great party while it lasted. I trust it will continue elsewhere."