Does Cleopatra act as a pivot between old and new Hollywood?
I think it does. I mean, it’s a terrible film, but the backstory is fantastic, which is what really appealed to me. I think Paramount did a drama series about the making of The Godfather, and I think they could do one about the making of Cleopatra because just the scale of it, even now, it’s unbelievable.
Did it really do so much damage that it brought the Hollywood epics of the age to an end?
It’s not the one film that sank the studios, but it’s certainlya rearguard action in the 1950s with television. Why pay to go out when you can stay at home and see movies? So, the way Hollywood fought back is by producing big, spectacular epics in colour, stereo sound. They would be roadshow presentations to try and make it as much of an event as possible. So, there would be two performances a day and you’d get a souvenir programme like going to the theatre. These were big, big productions, which you couldn’t possibly expect to see on television. And the biggest of them all was .
