SAHARA production notes FINAL

National Underwater and Marine Agency – a private marine salvage organization, the
best in the world at what they do.
“You definitely get the sense that Sandecker’s got a bit of a checkered past,” says
McConaughey.
“I love that I’m getting the chance to play the puppet master,” says Macy, “the
fellow clever enough to play one side against the other, go with the flow, to know when to
step in and put his foot down or let a guy run with the ball. He’s a great character.”
“Bill was our first choice from the very beginning,” says Eisner. “He’s a very
detail-oriented guy; he asked a lot of questions about the part before he committed. He
wanted to make sure that there was something he could sink his teeth into as an actor.
“Not only is he a great actor; he’s a very funny one as well,” Eisner continues. “He
ad-libbed many of his lines, including most of his reactions during the ‘Panama’ sequence.
We stuck him on the phone and let the camera roll… he gave us great, hilarious stuff.”
INTO THE DESERT
“The word ‘Sahara’ actually means ‘desert,’” says Matthew McConaughey. “And
that’s what it is – all that’s there is the heat and the sandstorms. It’s wide open – you look
around, 360 degrees, any direction you want, and there’s nothing out there. It’s wide
open.”
On location in Morocco, the company shot in several locations, including a lake
near Marrakech, but most of the desert locations were filmed near Erfoud, a tiny town on
the edge of the Sahara, near the Algerian border.
“It’s really amazing how the film industry has sprung up there – a decade ago,
nobody went to Morocco, but now, they have a history of making big movies,” notes
Breck Eisner. “They’re open to film productions and are very helpful in a way that other
countries can’t be; for example, we were able to lease three tanks, 10 armored personnel
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