After collaborating on Wonder Woman and its as-yet-unreleased sequel, Gal Gadot will once again reunite with the writer/director Patty Jenkins on a historical epic about Queen Cleopatra. According to the GeekTyrant, Paramount Pictures won the right to develop the project after a bidding war between it, Apple, Netflix, Universal, and Warner Bros. Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Alita: Battle Angel) will produce the script for the film.
Cleopatra was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Egypt. As was the fashion of the day, she was married to her brother Ptolemy XIII. In the last days of the Roman Republic, Cleopatra first seduced Roman general and politician Marc Antony, supporting his side in the civil war. Later, she betrayed him and seduced his main rival, Julius Caesar. However, Cleopatra’s intrigues were in vain as the newly-emerging Roman Empire turned Egypt into one of its provinces. Hollywood recounted Cleopatra’s story several times over the last century or so, most infamously in a 1963 epic starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison. That film was so costly it single-handedly almost bankrupted Twentieth Century Fox. But then again, they didn’t have CGI effects!
Over the last couple of years, there were several potential film projects about the life of Cleopatra. Most notably, Sony Pictures was at one point considering the project starring either Angelina Jolie or Lady Gaga.
