Casting An Inevitable Bomb: How 'Sahara' Wound Up As A Matthew
McConaughey Vehicle  While it's no secret that movies—especially
the huge disasters—rarely go before the cameras with a director
or producer's first choice in talent, it's always fun when the
divide between a production's lofty, A-list dreams and
disappointing B-list reality is somehow exposed. In presenting
the highlights of producer Karen Baldwin's testimony in the
ongoing, alternately messy and hilarious trial in which novelist
Clive Cussler and Philip Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment are
trying to determine who is most responsible for the historic
bombing of Sahara, the LAT lays out how Paramount wound up in
the thoroughly fucked position of having to spend $130 million
on a Matthew McConaughey vehicle:  Many top-tier actors were
considered for the lead role of the swashbuckling Dirk Pitt,
among them Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Owen
Wilson, Heath Ledger and Christian Slater. [Producer Karen]
Baldwin testified that in a telephone