Trivia
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Morgan Adams' flag was flown by "Calico" Jack Rackham, one of the only Caribbean pirates to have women on his crew (Anne Bonny and Mary Read). He later turned his ship over to them.
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Renny Harlin is famous for pushing actors to do their own stunts whenever possible. While promoting the film, Geena Davis appeared on talk shows with clips of her doing stunts over and over (including one take where she fell out of the window too soon, rolled down the roof and under the carriage) and explained the bruises and injuries she sustained while filming.
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Dawg Brown's flag is the oldest known "Jolly Roger" flag, flown by Captain Emmanuel Wynne.
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Geena Davis' "impossible stunt" (jumping out of a window, rolling onto the roof of a building, and landing on a moving carriage) was a digital composite of two shots; one shot of her falling, and a second shot of her already in the carriage, pretending she just landed there.
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Keanu Reeves, Liam Neeson, Jeff Bridges, Ralph Fiennes, Charlie Sheen and Michael Keaton all reportedly turned down the male lead role.
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Oliver Wood was the film's original director of photography. When he broke his ankle in an accident on set, Peter Levy immediately replaced him. The injury cost Wood his next job on Broken Arrow; Levy replaced him there, too.
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Oliver Reed was originally cast as Mordechai Fingers, but he was fired after getting in a bar fight and mooning at Geena Davis.
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At the time, Renny Harlin was dating Geena Davis, who was known for light comedies. He convinced Mario Kassar to cast Davis as the lead, sure it would turn her into an action-adventure star.
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Mario Kassar decided to start production by building sets, ships, and other logistical details in Malta before the first revised draft of the script was ready. He also sold the foreign distribution rights before the first revised draft.
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According to "The Guinness Book of Records", this film is the biggest financial loss to this date (Total cost: $115 million. Total box office earnings: $10 million. Total loss: $105 million).
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Michael Douglas originally agreed to do the film on two conditions: filming had to start immediately because he was only available for a limited time, and his character had to have the same amount of screen time as Geena Davis. Douglas eventually pulled out, claiming that Davis' role was expanded at his character's expense. Davis wanted to quit when Douglas did, but she was contractually obligated to finish the film. After Douglas quit, Renny Harlin was so preoccupied with trying to find a male lead that set construction and script work were done without his input. Harlin didn't like what he saw when shooting was set to begin, leading to massive, expensive rebuilding and rewriting.
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Broken pipes caused raw sewage to pour into the water tank where the actors were supposed to swim.
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When Renny Harlin fired the chief camera operator following a dispute, more than two dozen crew members quit.
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Carolco Pictures, which financed the film, filed for bankruptcy six weeks before it reached theaters.
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Before this film went into production Geena Davis and Michelle Pfeiffer were in talks to star in a film called Mistress of the Seas. Paul Verhoeven was in talks to direct.
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Shot at Mediterranean Studios in Malta, the same studio where box office bombs Orca, Raise the Titanic, and Popeye were shot.
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Matthew Modine several years later went on record to explain some of the reasons why the film's costs spiraled so much and became such an expensive flop. He cited one example where cases and cases of V8 juice were shipped out to Malta, expressly for director Renny Harlin and his wife Geena Davis. Towards the end of the shoot, the juice was served up for everybody as there was an entire room of it to be dispensed with. He also said that every scene had three cameras in constant use, resulting in tons and tons of film being used for every shot.
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One of a number of pirate movies made between the mid 1970s and mid 1990s which were a flop at the box-office. The films include Pirates, Yellowbeard, Swashbuckler, Nate and Hayes, The Pirate Movie and Cutthroat Island.
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