Cutthroat Island/Trivia


 * Creator Killer: Cutthroat Island bankrupted the studio Carolco, as well as destroying Geena Davis' career and her then-husband Renny Harlin's respectability as a director. The flop of this film (as well as that of The Long Kiss Goodnight, also starring Davis and directed by Harlin) is widely credited with destroying their marriage, as Harlin had pushed for Davis, then known for comedic roles, to headline the two blockbusters.
 * Genre Killer: Some have accused the film of being this for swashbuckling pirate movies. In reality, the genre was already dead at the time. Cutthroat Island just failed to revive it.
 * We would not see another swashbuckling pirate movie from a major studio until Disney released Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003.
 * Hey It's That Guy: Private Joker is Shaw.
 * Richard Nixon is Dawg.
 * Playing Against Type: Harlin hoped this movie would turn Geena Davis, an actress that had made her career on light romantic comedies, into an action star. It failed.
 * Star-Making Role: Despite the film flopping, it got John Debney (who mostly had been a television composer before this) noticed in the film scoring circles and launched his career.