Brian Helgeland (Legend) shared in an interview with Inverse that the canceled Cleopatra movie, in which Angelina Jolie was previously on board to play the Egyptian queen, was a “political thriller with assassinations and sex.” Unfortunately, the project never came to fruition.
“I was the very first writer on ‘Cleopatra’ when it was being developed for Angelina Jolie to star in, which was almost made,” said the canceled movie’s screenwriter. “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.”
Helgeland added, “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 ‘fuck you’ to those guys because she’s smart enough and he’s not.”
The canceled project was supposed to be a Sony Pictures production, with David Fincher in mind as the film’s director.
The scrapped Cleopatra movie would have been another interesting role for Angelina Jolie
For decades, the Academy Award-winning actress has been taking on different, compelling roles — from Girl, Interrupted and Changeling to Salt and Maleficent. Her other impressive film credits include Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Gia, A Mighty Heart, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Good Shepherd, and Wanted, among others. She is also no stranger to starring in a period epic, having played Queen Olympias in 2004’s Alexander opposite Colin Farrell as the titular Macedonian king; Jolie also took on the role of Grendel’s mother in historical fantasy epic Beowulf.
Given the original writer’s comments about the axed Cleopatra movie — and with Jolie’s experiences in delving into some challenging roles — it would have been interesting to see the actress as the renowned Egyptian icon.
