Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve is in talks for a movie based on the life of Egyptian ruler Cleopatra, according to Deadline and The Wrap.
The film will be an adaption of Stacy Schiff’s 2010 biography Cleopatra: A Life. The Wrap reports that David Scarpa, the scribe behind Keanu Reeves’ The Day the Earth Stood Still, was attached to rewrite a previous draft of the script last year.
We know that Forrest Gump writer Eric Roth penned a draft years ago. This Cleopatra movie was one of the many movies discussed in the outcome of the Sony email hack from 2014. Emails back and forth between producers and a potential star in Angelina Jolie talked about tweaking Roth’s script, hiring the likes of David Fincher (The Social Network) or Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) to direct, a “shaved head…Not bald” Jolie, and more.
Some of those emails were classic. Some of my favorites include: “She’s seriously out of her mind,” “Nooooooo noooooo noooooo please! Not a meeting!” and “Kill me please. Immediately.” Gawker collected some of that gold for those who want to read more.
Cleopatra has been portrayed on-screen many times before, including in the 1963 Oscar-winning film Cleopatra by actress Elizabeth Taylor.
Villenueve is next set to helm an adaption of Dune that is scripted by Roth. This Cleopatra movie could potentially follow or maybe a James Bond movie.