NEW DE MILLE FILM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEW DE MILLE FILM.

"THE CRUSADES" FOR SCREEN. History's greatest struggle, in which all the nations of Europe banded together for an inspired and unselfish cause, will be the subject of Cecil B. de Mille's next picture, "The Crusades." Harold Lamb, who wrote such books as "The Crusades," "ITlame of Islam," "Iron Men and Saints," "Ghengis Khan," and "Tamerlane," has been signed to write the script on the picture, which is to go into production shortly. This conflict, in which great and low, young and old, gladly gave their lives for an ideal, brought chivalry to its height and shaped by supreme effort and sacrifice the beginnings of the modern world. The spectacle proportions and amount of research and preparation required by thie forthcoming production has caused de Mille to abandon all ideas of a vacation which he had planned to follow his completion of "Cleopatra." Casting for "The Crusades" will begin soon, with Richard the Lion-heart as the choice role to be filled. However, the four kings of Europe who fought the Crusades, and the great Sultan Saladin who opposed them, will provide important parts for five leading men in the picture, besides involving four leading women in the rolee of the royal princesses of Europe.