MovieChat Forums > Caligola (1980) Discussion > Why did the Penthouse people chose Calig...

Why did the Penthouse people chose Caligula...


... as the subject for their 1st porn with high production values? I mean, the movie was bound to have a lot of violence (graphic or not). How would that be erotic? Weren't there other historical figures whose lives were surrounded by sex?

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No doubt it was due to Peter O'Toole, Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, etc.. all signing on. This is a huge leap forward for smut peddlers like Guccione. Just because he's a porn guy, doesn't mean that he can't do other things. This movie was quite excellent, I thought.

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The actors signed on before he was hired?

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I think it was based upon the novel by Gore Vidal and he was so respected that the actors jumped at the chance to be in the movie.

Don't forget, Howard Hughes started off as a mechanic before making movies.

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Correct. When McDowell signed on it was due to Vidal's novel. He was told at the time that Guccione was just the money guy and would have nothing to do with the film.

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It is not quite accurate to say that Penthouse chose the movie. Further, Vidal never wrote a novel about Caligula. Gore Vidal was already planning on a Caligula when director Paul Morrissey and producer Franco Rossellini approached him with their own Caligula project. They joined forces, but Italian law forbade a foreign screenwriter from being paid the $225,000 that Vidal demanded (his standard price). Rossellini then attempted to find US backing, which would allow Vidal to be paid by a US concern. His plan bore no fruit.

Then, just weeks later, out of the blue, Vidal’s phone rang. On the other end of the line was his tenant Jack Silverman. Yes, Vidal was a landlord, and Silverman rented an apartment in his brownstone at 416 East 58th Street. Silverman, an ad executive with Ogilvy & Mather, had previously attempted but failed to put together financing for Vidal’s script Jim Now with Rossellini as producer (an amazing script by the way, a million times better than Caligula). Silverman was now phoning to announce that he had just accepted a position as president of Penthouse’s new film-production wing, and that Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, whom Vidal already knew through Jim Goode, was searching about for a script that would be both serious and sexy. Vidal told about the scuttled Caligula venture, and after various battles of the egos, Guccione agreed to invest in Rossellini’s production, on condition that he could take presentation and coproducer credit, and on condition that Morrissey be removed from the project. Vidal and Morrissey had been eager to work together, and it seems that Guccione gave Morrissey the boot just to show who was boss.

Vidal’s script had a few sexual scenes, but as for all the other sexy stuff that Guccione was keen to add, Vidal saw no need for it. He initially went along because he was sure any such additions could and probably would all be cut out prior to shooting, surely prior to release.

Though various actors had been approached right from the first, nobody was cast prior to Guccione’s involvement. Guccione, again flexing his muscles, nixed Vidal’s preferred actors (Peter Firth as Caligula and Claire Bloom as Drusilla). McDowell was not the first choice for the part. He was the fifth.

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