NBC Developing Cleopatra Pilot

 

Lyndsey Marshal as Cleopatra on "Rome"

NBC is developing a period drama about Cleopatra, the fabled last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

Deadline reports network has ordered a put pilot from Lorenzo Di Bonaventura Pictures and ABC Studios, meaning NBC will have to pay penalty fees if the project doesn’t air. It’s written by Michael Seitzman (North Country).

Reigning from 51 to 30 B.C., Cleopatra is best known for her affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, her involvement in the Roman civil war, and her legendary suicide by means of a poisonous asp. She looms large in film, theater and television, in which she’s frequently depicted as a great beauty and seductress.

Cleopatra was most recently seen on television in HBO’s Rome, where she was portrayed by Lyndsey Marshal.