Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood

"On the 60th anniversary of the film, this book explores the extraordinary story of the making of Cleopatra, the film that changed the face of Hollywood. Cleopatra has its place as one of the most fabled films of all time. While others have won more Oscars, attracted better reviews and taken more money at the box office, the 1963 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stands alone in cinema legend. What began in 1958 as a remake of the 1917 Theda Bara film, which starred Joan Collins and was projected to cost $2 millioon, would open five years later, having cost nearly twenty times as much. The budget had skyrocketed enormously as the production went through extravagant sets in two different countries, two directors and six leading men-and this was on top of Elizabeth Taylor's $1 million fee. But it was the off-screen romance between the two on-screen leads that really cemented Cleopatra's place in cinema history. Within weeks of Richard Burton's arrival in Italy, he and Taylor embarked on a tumultuous and passionate love affiar that kept the Cuban Missle Crisis off the front pages and was denouced by the Vatican. Cleopatra and the undoing of Hollywood is a story of lust, excess and hubris-and how one film nearly brought Hollywood toits knees. "-Publisher's description.