The movie “Cleopatra” (1963) with the main role assigned to actress Elizabeth Taylor will be re-released in American theaters from mid-July to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film’s release. “Cleopatra” is one of the most expensive films in the history of world cinema.
Until today, the cost of film production still makes major producers In Hollywood, you have to be shy. “Cleopatra” is often humorously referred to as “the biggest loss-making film in cinema history” even though in reality it was still profitable for the producers, just because the capital recovery process was so long that the producers export had to struggle for a long time.
“Cleopatra” (1963)
If calculated at today’s face value, an investment of 44 million dollars in 1963 would be equivalent to more than 300 million dollars. million dollars at current time. This huge investment also exceeds the capital investment that was considered too heavy for the movie “Avatar” (2009) directed by James Cameron. “Avatar” with an investment of 237 million dollars has always been considered a “pre-production” movie for Hollywood cinema.
Directors who have always wanted to make a movie about Queen Cleopatra all understand that a A movie of epic scale worthy of the name of the famous historical queen will not be able to save money. Every time they start making a film about this Egyptian queen, the producers are always ready to spend heavily, even without calculation as in the case of “Cleopatra” (1963).
“ It’s better to make a movie that costs $15 million to make $3 million than to make a movie that costs $200,000 to make $400,000.” director Cecil B De Mille – director The actor of the movie “Cleopatra” (1934) made a statement that caused a stir in the press in the 1930s. In his movie “Cleopatra”, actress Claudette Colbert took on the main role.
“Cleopatra” (1934)
Fox film studio also invested a large sum of $300,000 in 1917 to produce a film about Queen Cleopatra starring actress Theda Bara.
< p>The film has been lost for decades, with only a few scenes remaining. Based on those scenes, one can confirm that even in the 1910s, the Fox studio at that time did not save money on investing in costumes and exteriors.
“Cleopatra” (1917)
Generations of film producers have always considered films made about this queen as potential golden eggs. In 1945, when the whole of England was struggling because of World War because of economic difficulties, Rank Organization film company understood that this was also the period when people were “hungry for spiritual food”.
The Ministry The movie titled “Caesar and Cleopatra” was born with a budget of up to 5.5 million dollars – a number too “terrible” to spend on a movie during a time when the whole country was starving. At that time “Caesar and Cleopatra” was also the most expensive film ever produced in British cinema history.
“Cleopatra” (1963)
But all that effort went to waste river into the tank when the studio was located in the English county of Buckinghamshire. The rainy weather in England has caused the collapse of an entire castle built of papier-mâché. In addition, often having to film in the pouring rain caused actress Elizabeth Taylor to get severe pneumonia and almost lose her life.
The main director of the film – Joseph L. Mankiewicz is famous. with profound satirical and humorous comedies, it is clearly not a bright choice for a majestic historical epic like “Cleopatra”.
However, Mankiewicz agreed to be the director and then fell into a state of exhaustion due to anxiety. He even rewrote the script during the making of the film. Recalling the memory of director “Cleopatra” Mankiewicz said that this was a film “made in confusion” and ended in “chaos”.
< p>Until the end of his life, director Mankiewicz always wanted to be able to edit and re-release this film. He always wanted to divide the film into two episodes of 3 hours each so that he could portray in more detail the love affairs of Queen Cleopatra instead of a 4-hour film as was done.
< p>One of the noisy behind-the-scenes stories at that time was the “rogue” affair between Elizabeth Taylor and co-star Richard Burton on the set of “Cleopatra” that caused Burton to divorce his wife to be with Taylor. Perhaps thanks to this “fall in love” the audience enjoyed a wonderful movie with beautiful scenes between the two main actors.
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Actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton on the set of “Cleopatra” ( 1963)
It has been 50 years since the film was first released in 1963. In mid-July the digitally edited version will be shown returns across theaters in the US.
In addition, a new biographical film about the life of Queen Cleopatra is also being ordered by film producer Scott Rudin, directed by Ang Lee. Most likely, actress Angelina Jolie will play the female lead.
Actress Angelina Jolie
As for the name of producer Scott Rudin one can be sure that if he really wanted to make a Any movie will definitely waste a lot of press and of course money from investors.
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