That's just the beginning. There are talks about Gladiator 2 featuring Denzel Washington in the role of the North African emperor Septimius Severus ...
Posts: 1779 | From: Somewhere In the Rif Mountains | Registered: Nov 2021
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Already, they're not disappointing in being insufferable.
EDIT: To be a bit more diplomatic about it, it's true that Cleopatra VII's dynasty was of Macedonian origin. However, my understanding is that there are some "blank spots" in her family tree, a big one being the identity of her mother. A little over ten years ago, there was an analysis of skeletal remains that may have belonged to her sister Arsinoe that reportedly showed an apparent mixture of African and European physical traits, which may suggest mixed ancestry for both of them. I think that is the hypothesis the filmmakers are going with here.
That said, a season on Amanirenas or Hatshepsut would have been pretty dope too.
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Here is a trailer for the Cleopatra film. Producer is Jada Pinkett Smith (married to actor Will Smith).
quote: From Executive Producer Jada Pinkett Smith comes a new documentary series exploring the lives of prominent and iconic African Queens. This season will feature Cleopatra, the world’s most famous, powerful, and misunderstood woman -- a daring queen whose beauty and romances came to overshadow her real asset: her intellect. Cleopatra’s heritage has been the subject of much academic debate, which has often been ignored by Hollywood. Now our series re-assesses this fascinating part of her story.
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Maybe we one day in the future will see an Egyptian - Greek . Italian co production telling the story of Cleopatra with actors from these countries. Could be a relief from the American Cleopatra films.
But actually there exists an Egyptian - Syrian TV-series from 2010 about her with Syrian actress Sulaf Fawakhrji in the role of Cleopatra.
quote: Dr. Zahi Hawas, Attorney General of the Higher Council of Archeology in Egypt, stated that he was not impressed with the drama series “Cleopatra” since he read the script for it because it contained incorrect facts that cannot be overlooked.
But he liked the actress
quote: Al Hawas decided to stop watching the drama after the third episodes stating that it is not worth wasting his time on. Al Hawas revealed that the only positive point about the drama was the nominated of Sulaf for the role of Cleopatra stating that she has a beautiful face that resembles the great Egyptian queen.
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@Archeopteryx That era is over now. Any future movies about North Africa will feature black actors because modern-day North Africans are "Arabs" and do not constitute a lucrative market.
Posts: 1779 | From: Somewhere In the Rif Mountains | Registered: Nov 2021
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quote:That Arsinoe had an African mother is a real sensation which leads to a new insight on Cleopatra's family and the relationship of the sisters Cleopatra and Arsinoe."
quote:Assuming, however, that Cleopatra’s grandmother was not from the traditional Macedonian Greek stem, the question arises as to just what she was. Sources suggest that if she was not Macedonian, she was probably Egyptian. So by the time of Cleopatra’s grandparents, there may have been an Egyptian element in the racial stem.
Cleopatra’s father also had several wives. One was his sister, but again there is evidence that some of his five children had another mother. Yet the geographer Strabo (one of the few contemporary sources for the life of Cleopatra) wrote that all the wives of her father were women of significant status, which rules out any slaves or concubines, and makes it possible that Cleopatra’s mother was of the traditional Macedonian Greek stock. But this may not have been the case, so one may need to look elsewhere for the ethnic background of Cleopatra’s mother. Yet there is only one other ethnic group that produced women of status in contemporary Egypt: the Egyptian religious elite , which in fact had a long history of intermarriage with the Ptolemaic dynasty. So Cleopatra’s mother may have been Egyptian, but she probably also had some Macedonian background.
There are three other matters worthy of consideration. One is that Cleopatra was the only ruler of her dynasty who knew, in addition to her native Greek, the Egyptian language. This suggests close association with an Egyptian speaker, perhaps her mother. Secondly, Cleopatra’s daughter, who became queen of Mauretania (and was mixed ethnically herself, as her father was Roman), honored the Egyptian religious elite at her far-off capital of Mauretanian Caesarea (in modern Algeria).
-------------------- It's not my burden to disabuse the ignorant of their wrong opinions Posts: 2699 | From: New York | Registered: Jun 2015
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quote:Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa Bey: [/qb]This is a reconstruction of someone thought to be Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister... so not far off
The reconstruction doesn't look black at all and a Macedonian/egyptian mix wouldn't make her look black or mulatto. Africans are not a monolith they do not all look the same when will you acknowledge this ?
Posts: 1779 | From: Somewhere In the Rif Mountains | Registered: Nov 2021
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Israeli actress Gal Gadot (who has played "Wonder Woman" in a couple of films) will eventually also play Cleopatra. It has also led to debates about Cleopatras "race".
quote:Gal Gadot fans slam haters saying: ‘Cleopatra was Greek not black or Arab’
The casting decision has some social media users riled up, with journalist Sameera Khan calling Gal Gadot a 'bland' Israeli and others stating that she is ‘not Black enough’ to play Cleopatra’.
Supporters have scrambled to defend her amidst accusations by online trolls that casting Gadot as Cleopatra was another example of ‘hollywood whitewashing’ - the term used to refer to the growing debate about the occurrence of white actors portraying non-white roles.
quote:Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa Bey: This is a reconstruction of someone thought to be Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister... so not far off
The reconstruction doesn't look black at all and a Macedonian/egyptian mix wouldn't make her look black or mulatto. Africans are not a monolith they do not all look the same when will you acknowledge this ? [/QB]
STRAWMAN ALERT
I NEVER SAID ALL AFRICANS LOOK ALIKE...
In fact, I am all for African diversity, in phenotype, culture, religion. ETC ETC ETC
The reconstruction looks like a mixed black person, since admixtures can create many different looks/phenotypes..anyone from a " mixed " background KNOWS this. Different phenotypes in the same family sometimes in the same womb
-------------------- It's not my burden to disabuse the ignorant of their wrong opinions Posts: 2699 | From: New York | Registered: Jun 2015
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quote:Originally posted by Yatunde Lisa Bey: This is a reconstruction of someone thought to be Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister... so not far off
The reconstruction doesn't look black at all and a Macedonian/egyptian mix wouldn't make her look black or mulatto. Africans are not a monolith they do not all look the same when will you acknowledge this ? [/QB]
What are you talking about Arsinoe? her color is rich Black and Looks like these Black people:
Anyone with richer skin is Black and does not need to pretend that there is an deepness of skin color that is not Black thats just bogus.
Posts: 9651 | From: Reace and Love City. | Registered: Oct 2005
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In fact, I am all for African diversity, in phenotype, culture, religion. ETC ETC ETC
The reconstruction looks like a mixed black person, since admixtures can create many different looks/phenotypes..anyone from a " mixed " background KNOWS this. Different phenotypes in the same family sometimes in the same womb
You cannot claim to support African diversity while consistently attempting to portray North Africans as black, solely because they do not fit into your narrow definition of blackness (and having no problem with north african people being portrayed by west african actors). The facial reconstruction in question does not resemble a person of mixed black descent, but rather a woman from the Mediterranean region whether from Southern Europe, the levant/Anatolia or even North Africa.
The actress here has nothing to do with Egypt and she doesn't look Macedonian + they have used west african actors to play egyptians... The only good news is that the series has already received a significant amount of negative feedback on Netflix.
Wtf not a single person here look north african/egyptian nor greek even the european actors look North european instead of mediterranean XD :
Posts: 1779 | From: Somewhere In the Rif Mountains | Registered: Nov 2021
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