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Screenwriter Brian Helgeland has revealed the plot details for his canceled Cleopatra movie, which would have starred Angelina Jolie as the titular Egyptian queen. The scribe, who won an Oscar for penning L.A. Confidential, started writing a screenplay for a new Cleopatra film in 2011 for Sony Pictures.
Emmy winner David Fincher was even attached to direct the biopic. However, the movie ultimately never went into development.
During a recent interview with Inverse, Helgeland discussed the canceled Cleopatra film, during which he shared plot details about the feature. The scribe said: “It had elements of a political thriller with assassinations and sex,” but was also “an epic that’s divided between her love affairs with Caesar and Marc Antony.”
Helgeland also shared that his script incorporated a historically accurate moment involving Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s assassination. Read his full comments below:
“I was the very first writer on Cleopatra when it was being developed for Angelina Jolie to star in, which was almost made. I don’t have anything to do with the current version unless they call me and want to use my draft.
“It had elements of a political thriller with assassinations and sex, but it’s an epic that’s divided between her love affairs with Caesar and Marc Antony. Lots of true events surprised me when I was writing it. For example, the day Caesar was assassinated – the Ides of March and all that stuff – she was in Rome. They were leaving for Egypt, and the reason why they had to kill him at that time was because he was headed out of town with her. That’s historically true and featured 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 sort of her way of saying “f*ck you” to those guys because she’s smart enough and he’s not. I have no idea if that script is being used, but I’ll be very happy if it is.”
Hollywood has struggled to get a new Cleopatra movie into development for decades. The struggle in producing another film comes after the 1963 feature, which starred Elizabeth Taylor, went so much over budget that it almost financially ruined 20th Century Fox.
However, several Cleopatra movies have entered development in recent years besides Helgeland’s with Jolie and Fincher.
Patty Jenkins was also developing a Cleopatra film that she intended to reunite with her Wonder Woman star, Gal Gadot, on. However, the Monster helmer later dropped out of the movie and was replaced by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Keri Skogland.
Ever since, the film has struggled to move past the development stage. It has even switched studios from Universal to Paramount.
Dune helmer Denis Villeneuve is also developing a Cleopatra movie, who has long been aspiring to tell his own version of the eponymous Queen of Egypt. All The Money in the World scribe David Scarpa penned the original draft for the project. However, this past January, 1917 screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns was reportedly hired to pen the latest draft of the script.
However, it’s unclear when Villeneuve will start production on his version of Cleopatra. He’s also currently in development on several other projects, including Dune: Part Three.
In May 2011, Jolie, who’s no longer attached to star in a Cleopatra feature, said in an interview with The Telegraph that she was hoping her film would be an accurate portrayal of the historical icon. “She has been 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,” the Academy Award winning-actress shared.
“My performance will never be as lovely as Elizabeth’s,” Jolie, who previously played another member of ancient royalty – Queen Olympias – in Alexander, added. “We are trying to get into a different truth about her as a pharaoh in history and not as a sex symbol, because she really wasn’t … Even this idea of her having many lovers – it was possible that it was only two. She is very interesting, but she wasn’t a great beauty.”
Based on Helgeland’s description of his Cleopatra script, it appears like the film would have been a grand historical epic that would have been driven by political intrigue, romance and betrayal. It likely focused on the complex power struggles that characterized Ancient Rome and Egypt during Cleopatra’s time, while also exploring her relationships Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, who were two of the most powerful figures in Roman history, with a fair amount of historical accuracy.
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