Sahara Movie Budget Includes $237,386 In Bribes

I love peeking behind the scenes at the ridiculous budgets of big Hollywood films, don't you? The LA Times ran a revealing report showing the entire budget for Sahara. There is a lot of interesting stuff in this report, the most noteworthy is that the studio included local bribes. Yes, BRIBES. The budget breakdown includes "courtesy payments," "gratuities" and "local bribes" totaling $237,386 . A $40,6888 payment to stop a river improvement project and $23,250 for "political/Mayoral support" may have been illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Other notable figures include:

$3.8 million was paid to the ten screenwriters attached to the project.

Penelope Cruz received $227,515 to cover her Entourage travel arrangements.

Composer Clint Mansell made $800,000, $50,000 more than director Breck Eisner. Glad to see Mansell's still doing well after Requiem for a Dream (one of the best movie scores of all time).

But local Moroccan crew members were paid next to nothing: an assistant propman was paid $233 per week. An American propman would make that much in a days work.

You can check out the whole list at the LAT, but you first must register.