Trial opens between best-selling author and billionaire producer of 'Sahara'

LOS ANGELES -- A production company that made the action film "Sahara" reneged on a deal to give best-selling author Clive Cussler creative control of the movie based on his book, his attorney said Friday.\nAttorney Bert Fields told jurors at the outset of the trial of dueling lawsuits between Cussler and Crusader Entertainment that the agreement was breached when vital story lines were eliminated and Cussler's script suggestions were ignored.\nCussler and Crusader Entertainment, a company owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, are each seeking millions of dollars in damages.\n"It was supposed to be Mr. Cussler who decided what would be cut out," Fields said. "They made this movie even if he didn't approve of all these changes."\nThe 2005 film, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz, was envisioned as the springboard for a lucrative franchise like the "Indiana Jones" or "James Bond" series, based on Cussler's character Dirk Pitt.\nThe movie grossed $68 million in the United States, but Fields said the production cost about $160 million.\nAttorneys for Crusader Entertainment have portrayed Cussler as uncooperative and meddlesome, and claimed he misled the moviemakers by saying his books had sold 100 million copies. They claim he sold less than half that number.\nAlan Rader, an attorney representing the company, said in his opening statement that Cussler was granted rights of approval that were replaced with a less authoritative consultation role when a director was hired.\n"He doesn't get final say," Rader said. "Every single complaint Mr. Cussler has made about changes to the screenplay happened after the director was hired."\nThe trial, expected to last nine weeks, could provide an inside look at behind-the-scenes dealing in Hollywood.\nOn one side is Cussler, who has written 32 books.\nOn the other is Anschutz, one of the richest men in the United States, who co-owns the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and owns Anschutz Entertainment Group, which operates Los Angeles' Staples Center. He also owns several Major League Soccer teams, including the Los Angeles Galaxy.\nBoth sides agree a deal was reached that gave Cussler certain consultation and approval rights for "Sahara."\nFields told jurors his client initially sought $40 million for the movie rights to some of his books, and a compromise was later reached that gave Cussler the ability to approve the screenplay for "Sahara" and consultation rights for a second movie that was never made.\nCussler's rights to the first film "stay intact without limit and just go on and on," Fields said.\nNumerous screenwriters were brought in to polish the script. Some versions were approved by Cussler but Fields estimates about 50 "fundamental" changes were made that strayed from the book and doomed the film.\n"They tore the heart out of the story," Fields said. "The picture died, lost all of this money because they gutted it."\nCalled the "Grandmaster of Adventure," Cussler, 75, has written numerous novels featuring Pitt. Cussler's book "Raise the Titanic!" was made for the big screen in 1980 but didn't do well at the box office.