![](\"https:\/\/img.einpresswire.com\/large\/710282\/malcolm-mcdowell-as-caligula.jpeg#1432x796\")
<\/a><\/p>\nProduction still – Malcolm McDowell as Caligula<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Six-part series explores how some of the most esteemed actors of the \u201870s came to star in the most notorious XXX film ever made<\/i><\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, July 22, 2024 \/EINPresswire.com<\/a>\/ — When Malcolm McDowell, Oscar nominee Peter O\u2019Toole, Sir John Gielgud and Dame Helen Mirren signed up for 1980\u2019s Caligula, they had no idea they\u2019d be lending their talents to one the most controversial films the world has ever seen. <\/p>\n In conjunction with the Drafthouse Films release of Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, the six-episode podcast Caligula: Package of Excellence will give movie lovers an inside look at how the original epic catastrophe came to be. Using new and exclusive interviews, firsthand accounts from the set and access to recently uncovered recordings, Package of Excellence is a behind the scenes audio documentary that answers the questions \u2013 how did it all go so horribly wrong? And why are some people so obsessed with recreating the film?<\/p>\n The shoot was a mess from the beginning. It started when the screenwriter was fired for making Caligula \u201ctoo gay.\u201d It ended with the director fired for not making the hardcore sex sexy enough. In between, there were actual on-set orgies, bestiality, a plan to plant drugs on a difficult actress and have her arrested, rumors of Vatican hit squads, a live birth, a deadly half-drugged horse and a s\u00e9ance with the dead Roman emperor to get his feedback on the film. <\/p>\n Hosts Collin Friesen (Writer\/director, NPR contributor) and Tara McNamara (Film Journalist, \u201880s Movie Guide) will narrate this deep dive into the making of the film Roger Ebert called \u201csickening, utterly worthless, shameful.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a clash of egos for the ages,\u201d says Friesen. “The battle between Penthouse publisher and producer Bob Guccione, writer Gore Vidal and anarchist director Tinto Brass, created the perfect storm of awful. Guccione says he put together a \u201cpackage of excellence\u201d to make the film, but ended up smuggling the footage out of Italy, reediting the movie to insert even more sex, then unleashing his creation on an unsuspecting world.\u201d <\/p>\n But the story doesn\u2019t end there. Tinto Brass fans believed there was a great piece of cinema \u2013 the one Brass shot – hidden in the bad one \u2013 the one Guccione created. And over the years, attempts to recut the movie have unspooled like a detective story. With false leads, dead ends, and a dash across Los Angeles to rescue the original footage from the trash compactor, the film is now about to have its Hollywood ending.<\/p>\n Caligula\u202f will return to theaters this summer in an all-new 4K Ultra High Definition version.\u202fCaligula: The Ultimate Cut, will let audiences see the complete reconstruction of one of cinema’s most lavish-yet-notorious\u202fproductions. <\/p>\n Package of Excellence is supported in part by Drafthouse Films, who will open\u202fCaligula: The Ultimate Cut \u202fin theaters nationwide starting August 16. <\/p>\n Learn more at \u202fcaligula.drafthousefilms.com <\/p>\n To listen to the first episode, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n Contact: Collin Friesen
\nFor more information about “Package of Excellence,” please contact Collin Friesen at\u2026
\npackageofexcellence@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Package of Excellence
packageofexcellence@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n