06-10-2008, 11:07 AM
Quote:The Achilles heel of FOTRE was the script which as you say in the romantic scenes especially was quite dire! Probably the reason why Charlton Heston turned the role down.
Yes, old Chuck was usually smart in choosing his roles. But there's more to the story which is revealed in the DVD commentary of 'El Cid'. According to the commentators Heston hated Loren's guts at the time. He thought she was one of the most unprofessional actresses he ever worked with. One of his pet peeves was her showing up late on stage (what did he expect, she's Italian :wink: ) But they also said that he was really just jealous because he found out she was paid more (a million dollars) than he was for 'El Cid'. So, he didn't want to put up with her in filming another epic in Spain. Later in life his attitude toward Loren softened quite a bit as he himself wrote down in one of his many writings according to the commentators.
There's more commentary about FOTRE on the 'El Cid' DVD but you've just read the best part. The context was the Samuel Bronston epic trilogy of 'El Cid', '55 Days in Peking", and "Fall of the Roman Empire" (1961, 1963, and 1964 respectively).
Quote:I want to see the extended directors cut of FOTRE! with all the deleted scenes! and "the Making of...."Amen to that
They have the footage, I just hope they don't take their sweet time in releasing it.
~Theo
Jaime
