Cleopatra (1963 film)/Trivia

• All-Star Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, Martin Landau, George Cole...need more?
• Box Office Bomb: Although it did well at the box office, Twentieth Century Fox only got half of the $57 million in profits, the rest of it going to movie theaters. The film had a budget of $44 million that nearly put the studio out of business.
• Creator Killer: Barely averted. Twentieth Century Fox nearly went bankrupt as a result of this film's bloated production. More importantly, it proved to be one of the final nails in the coffin of the studio system.
• Genre Killer: It killed the Sword and Sandal epic for over three decades, until Gladiator restored it.
• Romance on the Set: Elizabeth Taylor's and Richard Burton's romance on set was one of the most famous and scandalous in movie history. Not in the least because they were both still married.
• Troubled Production: The filming began in London in 1960. The first director, Rouben Mamoulian, was fired, and the actors who originally played Caesar and Antony left; the directing was given to Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who inherited a production already over budget with no usable footage. Elizabeth Taylor got pneumonia and almost died. The production had to be moved to Rome, because the English weather was bad for her recovery, and ruined the sets.