Since “Sahara” topped the box-office charts this past weekend, Hollywood might do well to consider some leading men from The New York Times bestseller list.

Dirk Pitt is Cussler’s adventurous shipwreck diver. Pitt is somewhat reminiscent of Indiana Jones and James Bond. “Sahara” isn’t the first Dirk Pitt adventure brought to screen, though. Cussler’s first novel, “Raise the Titanic,” was adapted into a film in the 1980s, with Richard Jordan as Pitt and M. Emmet Walsh as Giordino. The film is a good contrast to “Sahara,” relying more upon political intrigue and archaeological premise than the explosive action movie plot of “Sahara.” The future of Dirk Pitt is harder to discern. Cussler contends that he wasn’t given script approval for “Sahara,” so future movies might be harder to make.

Jack Ryan is Tom Clancy’s protagonist. Like Pitt, he’s an ex-Marine, but Ryan is a vulnerable everyman compared to Cussler’s two-fisted Pitt. Ryan begins with a simple desk job at the CIA, but his adventures take him from a Russian submarine to the Oval Office.

By far the finest Clancy novel made into a film is “The Hunt for Red October,” starring Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan and Sean Connery as a defecting Soviet naval officer. The movie moves with a good pace, making use of both the claustrophobic setting of the submarine and the sweeping reactions of both American and Russian forces to the actions of Red October’s crew.

Other good Jack Ryan films include “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger,” with Harrison Ford as Ryan.

The most recent Clancy film is “The Sum of All Fear,” which is good for about every reason except Jack Ryan, who is played by Ben Affleck. It becomes clear Affleck can’t compare to his predecessors in the role.

Whether in film or in print, the works of Clancy and Cussler are an empire of stories. But there are other writers whose works might contest or even surpass Dirk Pitt and Jack Ryan one day. Certainly, Robert Ludlum’s super-spy Jason Bourne is popular now, and a third film, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” has been announced. However, Ludlum himself died in early 2001 and the possibility of a serialized franchise of Bourne films is thereby limited at best.

Another possibility is Dan Brown’s character Robert Langdon, the hero of the controversial thriller “The Da Vinci Code,” which hits theatres in 2006 and has Ron Howard directing and Tom Hanks staring as Langdon.

Regardless of the outcome, books and movies will continue to share a profitable relationship.