Cleopatra is bound to the Taylor-Burton romance, one of Hollywood’s favorite real-life love stories from its own ranks. Both stars were married, and their dalliance with one another went from tabloid fodder to a full-fledged media sensation, rivaling coverage of the trouble-ridden production itself and inspiring ardor and condemnation from different corners of the press, public, and papacy. To hear Wanger tell it, sparks flew between Taylor and Burton almost immediately. (This being 1950s Hollywood, no one thought of filling the role of the Greco-Egyptian Cleopatra, or any of the prominent Egyptian roles, with Egyptians.)Īnd then, there was the affair. Wanger went through a string of writers searching for a new approach, and in the meantime, he hired a director ( Rouben Mamoulian) and the star he had long envisioned as the perfect Cleopatra - Taylor. The script for the 1917 version couldn’t be translated into sound and color anyway. An epic biopic on Cleopatra was a dream project for Wanger, and he wasn’t about to squander the opportunity on a quick dust-off of a silent picture. Unfortunately for that vision, the project ended up in the hands of producer Walter Wanger. 20th Century Fox initially hoped that a modestly budgeted Cleopatra, a remake of their 1917 silent film, could be the answer to their prayers after a string of flops in the late '50s. A miserable start to production that lost a director, an out-of-control budget, a scandalous love affair between two of its stars, and a financial ruin - that’s the lens the film is often seen through.Īnd there’s some truth to all of that. 'Cleopatra's Reputation Has Been Defined By the Production HistoryĪnd yet Cleopatra, even before its 1963 release, has been dogged by its reputation as a disaster.

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