Hollywood has been trying to get another Cleopatra movie off the ground for some time, and one of those iterations was set to star Angelina Jolie as the iconic Egyptian queen.
Brian Helgeland was the first screenwriter to try his hand at Angelina Jolie’s Cleopatra film, and he shared some details while chatting with Inverse. “I was the very first writer on Cleopatra when it was being developed for Angelina Jolie to star in, which was almost complete,“Helgeland said.”I have nothing to do with the current version unless they call me and want to use my draft.“
Helgeland went on to say that the film “had elements of a political thriller with assassinations and sex,» but ultimately, it was an epic rupture between Cleopatra’s love affairs with Caesar and Marc Antony. “Many real events surprised me as I wrote it. For example, the day Caesar was assassinated – the Ides of March and all that – she was in Rome,“Helgeland explained.”They were leaving for Egypt, and the reason they had to kill him at that time was because he was leaving the city with her. This is historically true and is in the script. She writes Mark 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 these guys because she’s pretty smart and he’s not. I don’t know if this script is used, but I will be very happy if it is.“
While Angelina Jolie is no longer attached to the project, several other attempts have been made to bring the story to life. Wonder Woman Director Patty Jenkins was developing a take that would have starred Gal Gadot, but she later abandoned the project and was replaced by Kari Skogland (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier).
Denis Villeneuve has been tackling his own film Cleopatra for several years. David Scarpa (All the money in the world) wrote the original version of the project, based on the best-selling biography by Stacy Schiff. It was reported earlier this year that Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917) was tackling the last project.