Thursday, March 7, 2013

Movies for April 2013:
Cleopatra and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

John Cleary will be hosting for April. The movies to watch are:

Cleopatra

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/


Trivia:

  • Adjusting for inflation, this is one of the most expensive movies ever made. Its budget of $44 million is equivalent to $297 million in 2007 dollars.
  • Soon after shooting began in England, Elizabeth Taylor became ill and could not work. Elizabeth Taylor's illness prevented her from working again in England's weather for several months, so the production moved to Rome. The sets and the footage already shot were scrapped.
  • A group of female extras who played Cleopatra's various servants and slave girls went on strike to demand protection from amorous Italian extras and their bottom-pinching fingers. The studio eventually hired a special guard to protect the extras.
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz hoped that the film would be released as two separate pictures, "Caesar and Cleopatra" followed by "Antony and Cleopatra." Each was to run approximately three hours. 20th Century-Fox decided against this, and released the film we know today. It runs just over four hours. It is hoped that the missing two hours will be located and that one day a six-hour 'director's cut' will be available.
  • Widely regarded as one of the biggest flops of all time, reality is quite different: the film made its money back despite the horrendous costs, but not all at once - it took several years. It was one of the highest grossing films of the 1960s. According to the late director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, many of the best scenes were cut and there are between 90 and 120 minutes of character development and story missing. 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061184/ 


Trivia:

  • Robert Redford turned down the role of Nick.
  • Sandy Dennis, who was pregnant at the time of filming, suffered a miscarriage on the set.
  • Every credited member of the cast received an Academy Award nomination.
  • Elizabeth Taylor gained nearly 30 pounds to play the role of a middle-aged wife just for this film.
  • Academy Award-winning cinematographer Harry Stradling Sr. was replaced by Haskell Wexler just after filming began for attempting to "beautify" Elizabeth Taylor.