Angelina Jolie’s Scrapped CLEOPATRA Movie Was an Epic ‘Political Thriller with Murder and Sex’ That Was Almost Done

THE Cleopatra protagonist of the film Angelina Jolie was announced over a decade ago and went through many stages of development, with several big names committed to creating it, but stopped just short of completion before finally being scrapped. The film was part romantic epic and part “political thriller with murder and sex,” according to the film’s original screenwriter. Brian Helgeland. Oscar winner Jolie was due to play the Egyptian queen in a film for Sony Pictures which once courted directors David Fincher, Ang LeeAND Martin Scorsese steer. But it never exactly took off.

Helgeland said in an interview with Inverse (via Variety):

“I was the lead writer on ‘Cleopatra’ when it was in development for Angelina Jolie to star, which was almost finished. It had elements of a political thriller with murder and sex, but it is an epic split between her love affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony. Many true events surprised me while I was writing it.

He continued:

“For example, the day Caesar was assassinated – the Ides of March and all – she was in Rome. They were leaving for Egypt and the reason they had to kill him at that time was because he was headed out of town with her. This is historically true and present in the script. She writes Marc Antony’s speech — ‘friends, Romans, countrymen’ — because he doesn’t know what to say, but she tells him what to say. It’s kind of her way of saying ‘fuck you’ to those guys because she’s smart enough and he’s not.”

Hollywood has long struggled to put a film about Cleopatra into production Elizabeth Taylor’s infamous 1963 epic, which had a budget so huge it nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was developing a new one Cleopatra movies for Gal Gadot a few years ago, while Dune director Denis Villeneuve he had long wanted to create his own Cleopatra movie. This latest project looked to be receiving a promising development update when reports surfaced earlier this year 1917 screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns he was writing Villeneuve’s film.

In May 2011, Jolie herself said in an interview with The Telegraph that she hoped for her Cleopatra the film would be an accurate portrayal of the historical icon. She said:

“It was very misunderstood. I thought it was all about the glamour, but then I read about her and she was a very strong mother, she spoke five languages ​​and she was a leader. My performance will never be as good as Elizabeth’s. We’re trying to get into a different truth about her as a pharaoh in the story and not as a sex symbol, because she really wasn’t… Also this idea of ​​having many lovers – it was possible that it was only two. It’s very interesting, but it wasn’t a great beauty.

When exactly could Villeneuve go into production on its own Cleopatra the film remains to be seen. The director has several high-profile projects currently in development, including a third Dune film with Legendary Entertainment.