{"id":664898,"date":"2025-04-24T05:06:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tcms-the-plot-thickens-podcast-takes-on-cleopatra-exclusive\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T05:06:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:06:47","slug":"tcms-the-plot-thickens-podcast-takes-on-cleopatra-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tcms-the-plot-thickens-podcast-takes-on-cleopatra-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"TCM\u2019s \u2018The Plot Thickens\u2019 Podcast Takes on \u2018Cleopatra\u2019 (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThe TCM podcast The Plot Thickens<\/em> returns in July with host Ben Mankiewicz taking a deep dive into the making of Cleopatra<\/em>, the troubled 1963 drama that starred Elizabeth Taylor and was directed and co-written by his uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs TCM notes, the production of the 20th Century Fox film was \u201cplagued from the start by medical emergencies, location changes, climate disasters, nervous breakdowns and egos as big as pyramids \u2026 not to mention Taylor\u2019s scandalous love affair with co-star Richard Burton. It fell to [Joe] Mankiewicz to somehow wrest an epic out of chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most expensive film ever made at the time \u2014 some estimates put the cost at $49 million, or $512 million in today\u2019s dollars \u2014 Cleopatra <\/em>began principal photography in September 1960 and wrapp<\/a>ed in July 1962, with reshoots taking place through the following March. It nearly bankrupted the studio.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lavish movie opened in June 1963, was the highest-grossing film of the year with $58 million ($606 million today) and earned nine Oscar nominations, winning four. (Read THR<\/em>\u2019s original review here.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pipe-smoking Mankiewicz, who had received directing and screenplay Oscars for A Letter to Three Wives<\/em> (1950) and All About Eve<\/em> (1951), had replaced original helmer Rouben Mamoulian in early 1961. Writing at night and directing during the day, he \u201cstruggled to stay one step ahead of financial disaster and his own failing health,\u201d TCM notes.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJoseph L. Mankiewicz and Elizabeth Taylor on the set.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t really know Joe well, even though I was already 25 years old when he died [in 1993],\u201d Ben Mankiewicz said in a statement. \u201cI had the basics. The highs: He had four Academy Awards. The lows: Writer\u2019s block plagued him for the last two decades of his life.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut reading Joe\u2019s diaries from the Cleopatra<\/em> production reveals a man far more complicated. And far more human. First of all, he\u2019s wickedly funny, like my dad, my brother, my grandfather and most of my cousins. Second,\u202fhe\u2019s exasperated. I think he could feel the movie slipping away. And there is nothing he can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn The Plot Thickens<\/em>, listeners will be treated to never before heard archival interviews with the cast and crew; new expert interviews from movie historians and pop culture aficionados; and stories drawn from Joe\u2019s private diaries and production logs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe six-episode series<\/a> kicks off July 17 (watch a preview here<\/a>). In conjunction with the\u202fpodcast\u2019s return, TCM will air a Mankiewicz-Taylor double feature the next day with Cleopatra<\/em> and Suddenly, Last Summer <\/em>(1959).<\/p>\n

\n\tPrevious seasons of The Plot Thickens<\/em> centered on Peter Bogdanovich; the 1990 film The Bonfire of the Vanities<\/em>; Lucille Ball; Pam Grier; and John Ford. The podcast has been featured on \u201cbest-of\u201d lists from The New York Times<\/em>, Entertainment Weekly<\/em>, NPR and Vanity Fair<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The TCM podcast The Plot Thickens returns in July with host Ben Mankiewicz taking a deep dive into the making of Cleopatra, the troubled 1963 drama that starred Elizabeth Taylor and was directed and co-written by his uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz. As TCM notes, the production of the 20th Century Fox film was \u201cplagued from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":664899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/MCDCLEO_FE002-H-2025.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[142475,75373,88407,23498,155852,62859],"class_list":["post-664898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-ben-mankiewicz","tag-cleopatra","tag-elizabeth-taylor","tag-podcasts","tag-richard-burton","tag-tcm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}