The Pagan Rock Musical We’ve All Been Waiting For?
There aren’t many stories from the ancient world more famous than that of Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. A canny politician, she had two remarkably famous love-affairs, first with Julius Caesar, and later with Mark Antony. The tale of her (and Mark Antony’s) downfall has been told and retold in a variety of formats. Now we can add “movie musical” to that very long list of adaptations.
“[Director Steven] Soderbergh explained at length how this bizarre sounding project ended up on his plate: ‘I’ve always wanted to do a musical. All the ones that were coming along just weren’t for me. I wanted to do a real rock n roll musical like ‘Tommy.’ During my research it appeared that most were female driven. So I started thinking about female protagonists. I was thinking about Catherine. It doesn’t take too long to think about Catherine and famous female historical figures to get to get to Cleopatra.’”
The (tentative) cast of “Cleo”.
The musical, which is due to start filming in April, will (allegedly) star Hugh Jackman as Mark Antony, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Cleopatra, and Ray “Robin of Sherwood” Winstone as Julius Caesar. Soderbergh says the project will be “a period story all the way” that will (allegedly) feature a soundtrack by Robert “Guided by Voices” Pollard. Oh, and did I mention that it’s going to be filmed in 3D? Because it is.
“With a four-hour Che epic, a top-shelf legal thriller and a porn-star-led comedy all ahead of him, Steven Soderbergh’s next movie had to be big if he wanted to keep up the attention he’s received in recent years. And big it is. The director has tapped Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hugh Jackman and disbanded indie-rock outfit Guided by Voices for Cleo, a 3D rock musical about Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony.”
Will “Cleo” be the Pagan equivalent of “Jesus Christ Superstar”, or will a project laden with so much pop-culture excess collapse under its own weight? I suppose only time will tell. In the meantime, you can speculate what exactly a rock-opera about Cleopatra would sound like.
5 responses so far
When I first heard about this project I was amused but optimistic. “This could be cool – I mean a musical about two of the awesomest people who ever lived – or so bad that its camp factor could redeem it.” I’m afraid the more I’ve heard about it, however, the more I want to run off screaming. On the other hand they can’t screw it up any worse than they’re apparently doing with the Hypatia flick, in which they gave her a love interest. (A woman who once flung her soiled menstrual pads in a suitor’s face to dissuade him, mind you.)
What is wrong with Hollywood?
[I've tried leaving this comment before with no apparent success, so if it suddenly appears multiple times, my apologies.]
A musical about ANYTHING is an insult to intelligence from the get-go, so count me totally uninterested.
sounds like I need to get drunk before hubby drags me to this one.
“This could be cool – I mean a musical about two of the awesomest people who ever lived – or so bad that its camp factor could redeem it.”
It’s times like this that I truely, deeply, miss Mystery Science Theather 3000.
~Illisse
“It’s times like this that I truely, deeply, miss Mystery Science Theather 3000.”
http://www.cinematictitanic.com/
http://www.rifftrax.com/