Cutthroat Island, originally intended as the saviour of Carolco Productions, managed to achieve the exact opposite – the company went bankrupt.

That’s what makes this particular movie so special – it managed to sink an entire studio. The careers of all the major players involved went down with it. Renny Harlin was never given a project of similar magnitude again and spent the following years directing mainly films that were best suited for VCR/DVD players.

The career of his then-wife Geena Davis suffered even worse – the only thing she has participated in the last couple of years is the Stuart Little “franchise”.

The couple’s marriage also suffered in the Cutthroat Island aftermath. After unsuccessfully teaming again for The Long Kiss Goodnight (where Harlin once again tried to turn his wife into an action star), the pair divorced in 1998. The Long Kiss Goodnight was also the final nail in the coffin with Geena Davis’ career inside.

The only one who benefited from this debacle was a little Maltese donkey Geena Davis liked so much that she took it home after the production ended. Whether she wanted to imply something to her husband or not is pure speculation.

Mario Kassar, owner of Carolco, chose Renny Harlin as the film’s director. The choice might have seemed pretty logical at the time as Harlin’s future looked very promising after the back-to-back success of Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger (the latter produced by Carolco).

Naturally, it was expected that Harlin would direct another big hit. He was on fire, he had the tools (presumably) and he had the big budget. But the entire naïve idea of Cutthroat Island being a buccaneer renaissance ended exactly at the time when Renny Harlin decided to cast his then-wife Geena Davis as the lead heroine. A pretty decent actress, yes, but the main star of a film that was supposed to save a studio struggling with bankruptcy?

The studio heads remained calm however and accepted Davis after Harlin convinced them she was the right person for the part, plus they had Michael Douglas cast as the male lead. Douglas was supposed to get $15 million but he withdrew from the project as soon as his part was significantly reduced in favour of Mrs Renny Harlin.

The studio then offered the part (for the same money) to Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise, but surprise, surprise they both refused.

The studio then lowered their sights and tried to get smaller fry on board – Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Charlie Sheen, Daniel Day Lewis, Liam Neeson and Tim Robbins were approached, but all of them turned the part down, obviously not interested in playing second fiddle to Geena Davis.

Kassar and Co. got really panicky at this point. No credible actor wanted to take part in the movie and instead of doing what any sensible human being would do (that is cut back on Davis’ part to get someone interesting to sign on the dotted line), they chose to cast Matthew Modine, who is about as far from a household name as you can get.

The studio didn’t have many options however as time was of the essence and during the casting process, two big pirate ships and an entire seaport were built in Malta. And Malta is the place where things got really interesting.

After arriving on the set, Harlin, in an act beyond comprehension, ordered both ships to be destroyed and rebuilt again. Rumour has it that it was just to shake off the studio heads, who constantly tried to meddle in Harlin’s work. Yes, Renny Harlin is indeed known for always getting his point effectively across.

The shooting itself started with a loud bang when veteran actor (and a great one at that) Oliver Reed was fired, after he provoked a bar-fight while drunk out of his mind. The finishing touch on his alcohol-induced rampage was when he pulled his pants down in front of Geena Davis.

Jeez – he’s behaving like a pirate on the set of a movie about pirates and they fire him. Maybe Harlin was just jealous of what Mr Reed was packing.

The fun then continued after a falling camera crushed an Italian worker’s leg and local staff walked out on the production as a form of protest so the filmmakers were forced to hastily find a replacement crew. This series of unfortunate events also took its toll on poor Renny, who had to rehabilitate himself in London as he was suffering from mental exhaustion.

The budget was constantly rising and the final figure was an impressive $98 million. Troubles on the set, destruction and re-building of many decorations and truckloads of V8 juice (drink of choice of our two lovebirds) took its toll. Matthew Modine saw the abnormal amount of V8 juice (even a truck with many unopened boxes with the beverage was found) as indicative of the wasteful excesses of the production.

Budget: $98,000,000; Domestic gross: $10,017,322; Foreign gross: circa $5,000,000; Worldwide gross: circa $15,017,322