MOVIES,PERSONALITY: Reaching for the Brass Ring

MOVIES

Remember Cleopatra—that wildly ballyhooed Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton extravaganza of 1963? Executives of 20th Century-Fox wish they could forget; the movie cost $41 million to make, but has taken in considerably less than that at the box office. Yet much of the movie industry is acting as if it has in fact forgotten the big-budget flops that brought several major studios to the brink of financial ruin in the 1960s. Once again, studio heads—this time backed by the resources of conglomerates that have bought up most of the studios—are pouring huge sums into...