I just finished reading my second "Dirk Pitt" adventure by Clive Cussler. Sahara is being considered for a major motion picture... can you say franchise?

Excerpts from Simon and Schuster:
1996.. a disease is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the raging epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life... Racing to save the world from environmental catastrophe, Pitt and his team... run a gauntlet between a billionaire industrialist and a bloodthirsty West African tyrant. In the scorching desert, Pitt finds a gold mine manned by slaves and uncovers the truth behind two enduring mysteries -- the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its secret connection with Lincoln's assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot....Now, amidst the blazing, shifting sands of the Sahara, DIRK PITT will make a desperate stand -- in a battle the world cannot afford to lose!