For a while it looked like James Cameron (Avatar) was going to direct an epic movie based on the life and times of Cleopatra (the famous temptress, leader, and last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt); as he had expressed interest in the project, but instead decided Avatar 2 and 3 would be his next films; yet the project is still going ahead, and may soon have a new director officially attached.
The new Cleopatra project (which is being fast-tracked by Sony) is based on Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra biography; Cleopatra: A Life; and is a project that producer Scott Rudin (Aliens)
calls a “blow the doors off the hinges idea”, as it doesn’t follow the traditional male viewpoint, and is a project that’s “impossible to resist.”
Until now Cleopatra’s entire history has been told from an almost exclusively male viewpoint, but Stacy Schiff’s biography presents the legendary Pharaoh in a new way; “she’s not a sex kitten, she’s a politician, strategist, warrior”; and makes it a high-profile project that any number of director’s would leap at the chance to claim.
And whilst still unofficial, and unconfirmed by Rudin, rumours persist that attached filmmakers “like the idea” of hiring Paul Greengrass (the director behind both The Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum) to take on the job of bringing the ancient queen back to the big screen; something which hasn’t been done since 1963.
Yet despite having a new take on the infamous Queen, a Brian Helgeland (Robin Hood) script which has been called both “brilliant” and “deserving of epic treatment”, and having Angelina Jolie (The Tourist) attached to star in the titular role (something James Cameron described as “hot”), producing a Cleopatra movie won’t be easy; as Fox’s 1963 effort nearly bankrupted the studio.
Fox’s 1963 epic Cleopatra (starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) marks the last time any studio has attempted a large-scale telling of the Queen’s tale, as production was wrought with problems, and a budget which ballooned from $2million to over $44million (the equivalent of $300million today), and Sony has already acknowledged the fact that creating a new spin on the tale “won’t be cheap.”
However, regardless of the risks, Sony are pushing ahead with the project, hoping to close with a director soon, begin filming this year, and release the epic movie sometime in 2013 (a year which is rather fitting, as it marks the 50th anniversary of the last Cleopatra release).
