Trivia / Cabin Boy

• Box Office Bomb: Made back only $3.6 million of its $10 million budget at the box office.
• Creator Killer: Adam Resnick's career was burned up by this movie; he didn't work for another five years.
• Dawson Casting: Nathaniel is a recent boarding school graduate played by 33-year-old Chris Elliott.
• Star-Derailing Role: The critical and commercial drubbing of this film torpedoed Chris Elliott's A-List movie career prospects.
• What Could Have Been: Tim Burton was originally going to direct rather than co-produce - he had wanted to work with Chris Elliott after seeing him in the sitcom Get a Life. However, Burton was offered the opportunity to direct Ed Wood around the same time, so it was directed by script co-writer Adam Resnick instead. Resnick has said that the script was specifically written with Burton in mind, and if he'd co-written the movie knowing he'd also direct, it probably would not have been in the fantasy comedy genre. Without Burton's involvement, the budget was slashed 90 percent (from 60 million to a mere 6 million), and both Resnick and Elliott have essentially disowned the movie, stating it was nothing like what they had envisioned. And while he wouldn't trade Ed Wood for anything (it remains his personal favorite), Burton has gone on record that he's disappointed he wasn't able to direct the film.