EXCLUSIVE: After fea
turing Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra as portrayed by Lindsay Lohan in its original movie Liz & Dick, Lifetime is now going for the real thing, putting in development a four-hour miniseries about the famous Egyptian queen. Written by Robert Port (Numbers) and produced by Michael Goldstein and Mike Larkin (Scoundrels), the mini tells the story of one of the most popular figures in ancient history. The last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra is known mostly for her beauty; 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. This is a rare multi-part miniseries for Lifetime, whose longform business has been focused primarily on TV movies. The cable network recently came on board History’s four-hour Bonnie & Clyde miniseries, which is being shared by the two sibling nets. It stars Holliday Grainger, Emile Hirsch, Holly Hunter and William Hurt and is directed by Bruce Beresford.
This development season, NBC gave a put pilot commitment to Cleopatra, a period drama produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures TV and ABC Studios. While the project, written by Michael Seitzman, did not get a pilot order, it is still percolating on a slower track. There have been numerous screen adaptations of the story of Cleopatra, most notably the 1963 movie starring Taylor. The most recent TV miniseries was ABC’s 1999 Cleopatra starring Leonor Varela in the title role.
well I hope they hire an actress. Lohan gave up acting years ago. She thinks walking in the room is acting. dumbest idea ever is having her prorray Liz
Sounds cool! Love the Mikes. Great guys, great producers.
Perhaps they could think outside the box and cast an Egyptian actress to play Cleopatra.
That’d be a historically inaccurate thing to do since Cleopatra was Greek
She was half greek.
Cleopatra is so played out anyway why not a movie on a full blood african queen that we we can get some culture on tv
Bet they hire a white girl.
Will they hire Lindsay Lohan as Cleopatra? Because she totally looks like her :) Just like she looked like Taylor.
And then they should hire Charlie Sheen as Julius Caesar and Justin Bieber as Mark Antony
Since Cleopatra Ptolemy was GREEK, then it would be appropriate to cast an American or European caucasian actor. The citizens of Egypt however, were black Africans, so lots of extras to be cast. And since she did not build anything as monumental as the Sphinx, the Pyramids of Giza or any of the great temples (those were built thousands of years prior to her reign by black Africans)this story will focus on her and Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar. Call me when they get to Queen Nefertiti, that has to go to a black actress!!
Lyndsey Marshal on HBO’s ROME did it best. And James Purefoy’s Mark Antony was one for the ages.
OHHH I remember her on Rome that series
I just hope they hire somebody of Greek descenty or African descent just sayin
Cleopatra was no white girl LOL!
This would be cool if we get to see Cleopatra as a Black actress for once! They always have a white woman as some of the historical figures that were clearly of a darker skin! Hope Lifetime casts this right! Looking forward to seeing how this plays out!
In the wake of the ratings success of Hatfields & McCoys, History and Lifetime are doing Bonnie and Clyde with Emile Hirsch.
Lifetime is now doing Cleopatra.
Discovery is doing the Klondike Gold Rush with Chris Cooper.
In the meantime, Gina Balian at FX is strangely silent. When is she going to announce her big, splashy debut mini-series with event casting? Can’t rest on those HBO laurels forever.
Good on the Michaels who have been out there gweathering the longform storm for a long time. Do us proud, guys. Don’t let it get…um…Lifetimey.
1. Greeks are not Caucasian. Egyptians are not black Africans. Many Egyptian murals are in color and show both the Pharaohs and black skinned subjects. The Egyptians are brown, and the blacks (generally Nubian)are jet black. I would suggest Google-ing up the sculpture of Nefertiti’s head for comparison. The best I can come up with for color is terracotta.
As a Cleopatra historian myself, Cleopatra’s mother was Nubian and her father was Greek. Even if her skin tone was not african, it would have been extremely dark. Greek or not, the Ptolemies had been living in Egypt for over 300 years. their skin tone would have naturally darkened. Hollywood needs to stop casting white women to portray the Pharaoh because she was definitely not white.
She was Macedonian not Greek.