Cabin Boy (1994)

Interesting facts

Cabin Boy is a 1994 American fantasy comedy film directed by Adam Resnick in his directorial debut. The film stars Chris Elliott as Nathaniel Mayweather, a self-centered, arrogant snob who mistakenly boards a fishing boat that takes him on a fantastical sea adventure as he attempts to reroute it to Hawaii.

Production

Tim Burton contacted Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick after having seen their Fox series Get a Life, a surreal sitcom filled with anti-humor. Burton wanted to "return to his whimsical roots" and make a comedy in line with his debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and tasked Elliott and Resnick to write a "Boy's Adventure" film in line with the Pee-wee Herman films as a vehicle for Elliott to star in.

During their conversations with Burton, Elliott suggested making a sea adventure, later citing as influences on the script the book Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdahl and the film Captain's Courageous (1937). Elliott and Resnick filled their script with non sequitur humor, jokes that were "indifferent to anything but [their] own need to confuse".

Burton dropped out as director after receiving an offer to direct the biopic Ed Wood. Because he loved the Cabin Boy script, he remained attached as a co-producer with Denise Di Novi. Burton recommended Resnick—who had never directed a feature film before—to take over as director, an offer Resnick reluctantly accepted.

Despite his own misgivings about his directing due to his inexperience, actress Melora Walters, who was cast as the female lead, said that Resnick did a good job directing, saying that Resnick showed a clear vision in his casting choices, and she later remembered that she had to audition multiple times before she was cast. Elliott and Resnick's former Late Night employer, David Letterman, acted in a cameo role.

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