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EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation with two networks bidding, NBC has landed Cleopatra, a period drama about the famous Egyptian queen produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures TV and ABC Studios. The project will be written by Michael Seitzman who penned the ABC/ABC Studios drama pilot Americana this past season. Seitzman is executive producing with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Dan McDermott.
Cleopatra is one of the most popular figures in ancient history. The last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, she is known mostly for her beauty and her liaisons with Rome’s Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and her tragic suicide that was followed by the fall of Egypt, which became a Roman province. The NBC project is described as an epic romance set in a world of sorcery, gods and monsters that centers on Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Julius Caesar. The young queen makes a sacred pact with a goddess to win back her throne, igniting a curse and an infamous love triangle that changes the course of history, forever ending the 4,000 year dominion of the Pharaoh.
There have been numerous screen adaptations of the story of Cleopatra, most notably the 1963 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor. There is also a high-profile new Cleopatra movie percolating at Sony, with David Fincher attached to direct, Angelina Jolie to star and Scott Rudin to produce. Surprisingly, there have not been major Cleopatra-centered series projects I can think of… until now. (Cleopatra was recently featured as a peripheral character on HBO’s Rome.)
Cleopatra stems from WME-repped Seitzman’s overall deal with ABC Studios where the North Country writer has been since 2008. His pilot Americana last season attracted Phillip Noyce as director and Anthony LaPaglia as star and came very close to a series order. CAA-repped Di Bonaventura Pictures TV also is under an overall deal at ABC Studios. In its first season, the company landed a series on the air, ABC’s upcoming Zero Hour. In addition to Cleopatra, the pod recently sold the Texas militia drama pitch Founding Fathers to ABC with Rich D’Ovidio writing.
This marks ABC Studios’ first major sale outside of ABC this development season. Cleopatra joins several other projects that have received put pilot/pilot production commitments so far: Alex Kurtzman/Bob Orci/Len Wiseman’s Sleepy Hollow at Fox, a McG/Byron Balasco soap at ABC, a Rand Ravich drama at NBC and Hart Hanson’s Backstrom at CBS.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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This will fail because of race.
1. If they don’t cast a white actress, then white audiences who have been educated into a TV world where they represent everything will not watch. to them, it will be some kind of “black” show.
2. Cast a white actress and lose blacks, suffer backlash and lose those whites who want historical accuracy.
3. Cast an “other” and you lose everybody.
It shouldn’t be this way but each year, we continue to perpetuate stereotypes and refuse to bring the TV world closer to the real one. So we’ve built an infrastructure of false imagery and stereotypical characterization that continues to debilitate the ability of the audience to engage themes and characters.
Also, you can’t do real sex on NBC.
Cleopatra was not black. Her ancestry was Greek and Parthian (European and kinda-Iranian, in modern terms).
Think of the great Egyptian city Alexandria and then think Alexander the Great (a Macedonian Greek) and then think Cleopatra and then know they are all connected. She was a Ptolemy decedent of a trusted general of Alexander The Great.
We’e going to make it like “Friends” but set in ancient Egypt instead of contemporary Manhattan. Cleo will be just like Rachel. She will have two best friends just like Phoebe and Monica. They will spend all their free time at the Egyptian Central Perk coffee palace. Coffee was a great and rare beverage in those days. This way senators and gladiators could come in lots of handsome men for romance. Our three main guys will be just like Ross and Chandler and Joey. Add the sorcery and the magic and we have a new hit show.
Cleopatra was Greek.
Maybe they can turn it into a “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”-style comedy. Can’t possibly be any worse than what they’ve come up with.
Lets hope they at least the geographical history right…. Egypt is in Africa and Cleopatra was a black woman. Sorry people, but that “Liz Taylor” fantasy is dead.
Yes, I always thought that even when I was a kid.
She wasnt Black, ok? Case closed!
@TutTut and Dawn…. Uhhhhh where did you learn your history, from old MGM movies??? Cleopatra was a Greek who ruled an African nation? LOL you two geniuses are probably execs at Nu Image
I hope this is meant to be a parody, because if you’re serious, you’re tragically misinformed. Cleopatra’s dynasty was founded by Ptolemy I, one of the Macedonian generals of Alexander the Great, who grabbed Egypt in the carve-up after Alexander died. Apart from a few intermarriages with nobility from Mesopotamia, the incest-heavy marriage practices of the Ptolemaic dynasty mean that Cleopatra VII’s lineage is virtually all Macedonian. There is most definitely no evidence that any black Africans were in her family tree. Her dynasty was quite famously reticent in its breeding practices.
Don’t care. Cleo’s been done ad nauseam.
Would much rather see a series or movie about Nefertiti, who ruled Egypt as Pharaoh (not queen) & led her people into monotheism & religious revolution even after the death of her beloved husband Akhenaten & numerous attempts of assassination herself.
Now THAT’S a story!
Zoe Saldana’s rep team, are you listening?
For those who don’t want to bother surfing for the facts, this is from Smithsonian.com ” Egypt’s Alexandria-based rulers, including Cleopatra, were ethnically Greek, descended from Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy I Soter. They would have spoken Greek and observed Greek customs, separating themselves from the ethnically Egyptian majority. But unlike her forebears, Cleopatra actually bothered to learn the Egyptian language.”
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/biography/cleopatra.html#ixzz23Gu9jRMb
Cleopatra Warrior Pharaoh? Will she have learned Kung Fu during her travels abroad? Will she for some reason speak with a British accent?
If it is something along the lines of silly Buffy characters that have weird faces and disappear when you whack them, then I really am not looking forward to it.
If it is something more akin to the dragon lady in Game Of Thrones and has a brooding, sexy edge to it, then it might be OK.
But please, none of this OTT video graphic crap that might slip in.
It has to be an intelligent, almost believable storyline and watchability.
Use actors that look as though they come from that part of the world and outfits that are not outlandish and stupid.
Darn, I was so hoping the CW would pick this up. “Cleopatra: The Teen Years”.
I hope they cast Jessica Lowndes as Cleopatra, because she IS Cleopatra