‘Cleopatra’ TV Series In the Works At Amazon From ‘Black Sails’ Team 

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‘Cleopatra’ TV Series In the Works At Amazon From ‘Black Sails’ Team

, a drama series about the famous Egyptian queen, I have learned. The project hails from the

s trio of co-creators/executive producers Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine and executive producer Dan Shotz.

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is described as a revisionist take on one of history’s most misunderstood women,

in Ancient Egypt. After nearly losing her life in a bloody coup, Cleopatra must use her natural wit and political genius to take back her throne and restore honor to her family and kingdom.

In addition to writing, Levine is executive producing alongside Steinberg and Shotz of Quaker Moving Pictures and Mary Beth Basile (

, a prequel to the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel

, which wrapped its four-season run on Starz last month.

There have been several attempts at launching a Cleopatra TV series in the past several years.

Most recently, David Ellender’s Slingshot Global Media put in development a 

 TV series with Shekhar Kapur attached to write and direct. Before that, there was an NBC drama series project, which had a put pilot commitment, and Lifetime was developing a Cleopatra miniseries. And there is the long-gestating Cleopatra feature at Sony Pictures based on the Stacy Schiff bestselling book

Levine, Steinberg, Shotz and Basile are all repped by WME. Additionally, Levine and Steinberg are repped by attorney Mark Wetzstein; Shotz by Barry Littman.

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Cleopatra was a black woman… lets keep historical accuracy or this will not fly.

DNA analysis shows that she was mixed-race. Her mother was black sub-Saharan African and her father was Greek.

DNA analysis was inconclusive, assuming you’re referencing the analysis done on the remains of (what many believe to be) her sister Arsinoe. Those remains showed maternal African or part-African DNA, but even if it was, in fact, Arsinoe, there is no conclusive evidence that Cleopatra and Arsinoe shared the same mother. Historians generally agree that Cleopatra’s father was Greek (of Macedonian origin) and that her mother MAY have been African or part-African…so she was anywhere from 50%-100% Greek and 0% to 50% African, leaving “authentic” casting arguably open to any mixed race or ethnically ambiguous actress who can best inhabit the dynamic character. (Though, given that it’s the team behind Black Sails, “hotness” might be right up there with, and maybe just above, acting ability.)

You are both wrong. Cleopatra was Macedonian. Her sister, Arcenio, was half black (Egyptian-African). She would be taken to Rome by Augustus Caesar who raised her as his daughter. Cleopatra’s son, Caesarean was smuggled out of Egypt to the protection of the Nubian Empire. Not even the Romans wanted him bad enough to make war on Nubia. He died at the age of nineteen.

No, she wasn’t; she was mainly Macedonian and some Greek. Darker than a modern Swede or German, to be sure, but that’s just skin tone, and not race.

Could her father, Ptolemy XIII, or earlier ancestors have had children with women from sub-Saharan Africa? Possibly; kings had access to multiple wives and concubines, but there’s no record to support a specific contention resulting in a conclusion that Cleopatra VII was black, and the Sahara formed a huge barrier to large-scale intermingling between Egyptians — who also weren’t black — and those to the south.

Upper Egypt aka Kmet (the Black Land of the Black People) is Egypt from Memphis all the way south to the shared border with the Empire of Nubia (Meroe). Sub Saharan Africa begins at the southern most border of Sudan (south of ancient Punt/Somalia). From the First Dynasty (Scorpion King) until the Persian conquest, as upsetting as it may be too you, the Empire of Kmet (Egypt) was totally Black.

Kmet refers to the black earth of the Nile delta region not a people.

According to every one of the Egyptian historians and archeologist I’ve spoken to, men and women from Memphis to Nubia, it means ‘the Black Land of the Black People’. It seems only Arab, Europeans and white Americans say otherwise. You need to get over your denial and ‘face your greatest fear’.

Actually the latest DNA evidence shows she was part of the royal chinese bloodline, so if anything she was east asian. Also few people now, that she was very short, and had an extra thumb on her left knee. She was also one of the first documented woman with heterochromia, one of her eyes way blue the other birght pink. She was quite a fascinating gal if you get your facts right.

Sounds very interesting. Could even suck me into Amazon Prime if it comes.

Hopefully the actress will reflect the actual HISTORY and REGION she’s from. “The Queen of the Nile” should be a woman of color

3. I hope she’s super hot sexy & often nude (more than Liz Taylor’s epic bath scene).

2) YOU may not know history, but I and alot of others do. Cleopatra was born in Egypt. I’ve actually been to Alexandria, Egypt..

Hello Watcher. Yes, Cleopatra is not fictional. The show will be fictional. Can’t you understand the difference?

I do know history including the difference between facts, theories, assumptions, & not falsely stating something as fact just to serve your own narrative/agenda.

Where she was born is not proof of her race. I hope you enjoyed Alexandria, but that also proves/supports nothing that you wrote. I’ve also been to Egypt. I also have anecdotes that are not relevant.

She was a Ptolemy, a Macedonian who like the Greeks were extremely racist (the exception being Alexander the Great).

Cleopatra was indeed Greek, so there should be no shortage of material when looking at the contrast between her own culture and values versus those of the indigenous Egyptians.

No…she MARRIED a greek. Cleopatra was NUBIAN…that’s in AFRICA. Sorry…not falling for the banana in the tail pipe false history LIE.

OMG. She was not Nubian. Don’t do a disservice to the true Nubians who did rule Egypt by lumping Cleopatra with them. And she didn’t marry a Greek man, she came from a Greek family. Just like the Nubians and the Persians, Greeks ruled Egypt for a period of time. Cleopatra came from one of those ruling Greek families. There are ancient Egyptians who in all likelihood were black but Cleopatra was likely not one of them.

She was Macedonian Greek, Ptolemy, Alexander the Greats General got Egypt when Alexander died. She is decended from him. Also look at all the depictions of her. Get an education.

NO, Cleopatra VII was NOT Nubian. The matter of consequence here is why you feel compelled to make such a claim against all historical facts. Does it somehow add to your own sense of self-worth to lay false claim to the ancesrty and race of a woman who died two-thousand years ago?

Cleopatra was born in Alexandria, EGYPT….which is in AFRICA #NotGreek

Watcher, a person’s birthplace (even if accurately known) is not always indicative & is not proof of race. Just enjoy the show.

Wasn’t as easy to emigrate in those days with a lack of international flights and all so while one often can’t know 100%, let’s not use that as an excuse to not cast someone who looks like she’s at least from that region.

LOL….So, you can be “Greek” if you’re born in AFRICA ???!!! FOH dude…the ONLY nation that doesn’t recognize Cleopatra’s TRUE race is America…

I’ll enjoy it, if it’s accurate…sick of culture robbers trying to rewrite history..

“I’ll enjoy it, if it’s accurate…sick of culture robbers trying to rewrite history..”

This irony of this comment is pretty astounding.

Agreed she was but she is of Greek not African or Nubian decent. So she would have been white.

So Cleopatra was born in Africa. So was Charlize Theron. Will it make you happy to use that as a basis for claiming SHE’S black, too?

Modern Arabs, living along the northern rim of Africa are not black, and ancient Egyptians were not Arabs (who didn’t migrate to Africa from the Arabian peninsula until several centuries later), but they were ALSO not negroid. Among modern Egyptians, Copts, who are mainly Christians, are descended from the peoples of ancient Egypt.

Were there sub-Saharan blacks living in ancient Egypt? Certainly; some were slaves, others were free. But they weren’t running the country, they were not of royal lineage, and Cleopatra wasn’t one of them.

Cleopatra was a descendent of Ptolemy, Alexander the Great’s general, who gained control of Egypt as part of Alexander’s conquests. This was long, long, long after the glory days of Egypt’s empire and Cleopatra was long after Alexander. Maybe she was mixed race and not pure Greek by the time her generation rolled around but there’s no doubt she was part of a regime that culturally co-opted Egyptian religion and ceremony to maintain control over the population. This is an interesting part of the story and should not be bowdlerized for the sake of political correctness.

Wrong. Just because she was born in Africa doesn’t mean that she’s not Greek. Lupita Nyong’o is Kenyan even though she was born in Mexico

So many of you do not even know the basics of Egyptian history.

Cleopatra was not BLACK. She was ethnically Greek of the Macedonian branch.

For those of you who do not know history, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt from the Persian Empire.

When he died General Ptolemy who was one of Alexander’s Macedonian generals established himself as King of Egypt. He then adopted many Egyptian customs, such as royal incest.

For every following generation the Ptolemies were inbred from the original Macedonian bloodline.

Some claim that Cleopatra’s mother was not the sister of her father, but there is no evidence for that and goes against the very royal marriage customs of Ptolemaic Egypt.

Here we go again. Cleopatra was Macedonian Greek. She was as Egyptian as Liz Taylor, according to historians. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and his successor, Ptolemy I started a long line of rulers who infused Greek culture throughout the country. Alexandria, Egypt is named after Alexander the Great. I really don’t care if they cast color-blind or not, just pointing out historical fact. It’s pretty remarkable how people actually traveled wide and far back then.

Now, as to the matter of the TV series, itself. It points to what has always been problematic about Cleopatra as a dramatic subject: she’s of more interest to people than she is interesting. Cleopatra doesn’t make a good protagonist, her place in history — and drama — is more that of a CATALYST, mainly for her effect on the trajectories of three lives of great consequence: Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavianus, who ultimately defeated Antony to become Rome’s first Emperor, Augustus.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s original conception for his 1963 film was as two companion movies, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Antony and Cleopatra, each about 3 1/2 hours long, which would be seen back-to-back or on two consecutive night.

20th Century-Fox balked at such a plan; practically any studio would, especially after incurring the immense expenses Fox did. They wanted to make as much money back, as quickly as possible (the film was hugely popular, and actually did turn a profit, but it took years), and so imposed draconian cuts on the film, paring it to just over four hours (a later release actually took it down by another forty-five minutes). I have the complete original script (around 375 pages), and it’s a remarkable document, filled with all sorts of character development and essential subplots not in the four-hour version. Had Fox retained all the footage (everything in that script was shot) and reassembled it (the studio wanted to, decades later), I think that the film’s reputation, and Mankiewicz’s, would have been rehabilitated.

Cleopatra was most definitely Greek and possibly black Egyptian. So no Emma Stone on this one

Doesn’t matter; Helen of Troy was (reportedly) MUCH hotter.

I identify as alien. Does that make me an alien? I identify as a genius. In truth I’m not either, but I could be wrong & therefore be right? We don’t know what she was other than beautiful temptress by all accounts.

Nope, not beautiful by today’s terms but smart as hell.

Well this was fun. Nice people. The nuttier ‘contributors’ stayed out of this one :)

I’d like to take a sidebar from these fascinatingly mind-numbing debates about the racial makeup of Cleopatra to acknowledge the DREAM TEAM that’s behind this project: Steinberg, Levine, Shotz – and Mary Beth Basile (so long overdue!) Extremely excited to see this project develop and Amazon seems like the perfect fit. Go get ’em!

Thank you! Great team, looking forward to this. I LOVED Black Sails and was very impressed by their production work.

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