Cutthroat Island
Carolco attempted a comeback with the big-budget swashbuckler "Cutthroat Island", with Michael Douglas in the lead. Douglas dropped out early in its production, and was replaced by the less-bankable Matthew Modine. Geena Davis, cast as the female lead through her ties with then-husband, the director Renny Harlin, was already an established A-lister but was coming off a string of flops. MGM hoped to advertise "Cutthroat Island" based on spectacle rather than cast. In an attempt to raise more financing for the projected $90–100million film, Carolco sold off the rights to several films in production, including "Last of the Dogmen", "Stargate" and "Showgirls". In October 1994, Carolco ran out of funds and Pioneer invested another $8 million. In April 1995, Carolco announced that it was unable to make interest payments on $55 million of debt. In November 1995, Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. "Cutthroat Island" was released that Christmas and became a box-office disaster. Carolco agreed to sell its assets to 20th Century Fox for $50 million. But when Canal+ made a $58 million bid for the library in January 1996, Fox, which by then lowered their purchase price to $47.5 million, dropped their deal.