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The documentary The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille is an intriguing watch for a myriad of reasons. On one level, the feature is a must see for movie buffs, as it chronicles director Peter Brosnan's 30 plus year quest to unearth pieces of Cecil B. DeMille's set from 1923's The Ten  Commandments. [...]...

The movie showman Cecil B. DeMille, whose epic productions included The King of Kings and The Greatest Show on Earth, might balk at the intimate scale of Peter Brosnan’s documentary about him. But he’d understand the perseverance and vision behind it: Through three decades of funding struggles and bureaucratic red tape, Brosnan spearheaded efforts to unearth from the sandy coast of Central California the remains of one of DeMille’s most monumental undertakings: the Egyptian city constructed for his first biblical spectacle, 1923’s The Ten Commandments.

For anyone who cares about Hollywood history — or, for that matter, California history —...

A Hollywood archivist's decade-long dream of excavating movie legend Cecil B Demille's The Ten Commandments set in a remote California town is about to be realised thanks to funding from locals.

Peter Brosnan started searching for the Hollywood holy grail, created for the 1923 epic and then buried among the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes on California's Central Coast, 10 years ago and was thrilled when he unveiled statues created for DeMille after a day-long dig.

But he couldn't raise the funds to excavate the set and movie bosses were far from interested in funding a dig as part of a documentary.

Brosnan temporarily abandoned the idea, but now the New York University film school graduate is hoping a grant to make a film about the area's links to Hollywood's great early films and stars will help him start the excavation.

Brosnan tells the Los Angeles Times newspaper, "I didn't realise when I started this project that it was going to become an epic of it's own."

The publication reports DeMille's 'lost city' was bulldozed into a trench and covered with sand when filming wrapped - because the legendary moviemaker feared rivals would steal his statues and it was too expensive to haul away and store.

Hollywood has a sad history of lost props and costumes. On one hand, you can't blame them. Who can predict what is going to become iconic? Why not reuse that pretty white dress from The Seven Year Itch? But then there are unforgivable examples. The Wizard of Oz was pretty iconic by the time MGM decided to do a garage sale of props, and pieces of history (such as the Lion's suit) flew out the door for pennies. Even when plucky individuals like Debbie Reynolds have tried to set up some kind of museum or preservation group, no one is interested in funding it. Movie history, like so much "real" history, is unappreciated by those with the money to study it. So, The La Times' story about the lost set of Cecil B. DeMille's 1928 The Ten Commandments isn't at all surprising, but Peter Brosnan's quest to find it is pretty fascinating.