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Martin Scorsese was set to direct a 'Cleopatra' movie with Angelina Jolie
Martin Scorsese has revealed that he was once set to direct a Cleopatra movie starring Angelina Jolie, only for the project to fall apart thanks, at least in part, to Seth Rogen and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
According to legendary director Martin Scorsese, the planned historical epic was derailed by the infamous 2014 Sony Pictures hack, which was carried out in retaliation for the release of Seth Rogen’s comedy The Interview, a film about a fictional plot to assassinate the North Korean leader.
Martin Scorsese says Seth Rogen’s beef with North Korea and subsequent Sony hack over The Interview ruined his planned Cleopatra movie starring Angelina Jolie
During a recent conversation with his daughter Francesca for Tribeca’s Crafty interview series, the legendary filmmaker revealed that the project was far enough along that Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth, who later penned Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, had a script ready.
“We were gonna do Cleopatra at one point, and then they made fun of [Kim Jong Un], and he got mad and blew up everybody at Columbia,” Scorsese explained.
“Seth Rogen, right? And then he got mad, and [it] ruined Cleopatra.”
Scorsese added that Jolie was set to play Cleopatra VII and that the film was going to be “really wild.” It certainly would have marked an outlier for Scorsese’s body of work, as his last film featuring a female lead is 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which starred Ellen Burstyn.
Released in 2014, The Interview starred Rogen and James Franco as two journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong Un. The film sparked outrage in North Korea, and Sony Pictures subsequently suffered a massive cyberattack that the FBI attributed to the North Korean government.
The hack exposed thousands of confidential studio emails, including exchanges between producer Scott Rudin and then-Sony executive Amy Pascal about the planned Cleopatra movie. In one particularly brutal email, Rudin called Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat” and raised concerns about the potential $180 million production.
While Scorsese jokingly lays the blame at Rogen’s feet, the comedian himself wasn’t responsible for the cyberattack or the project’s cancellation.
Despite Cleopatra’s collapse, Scorsese and Rogen would eventually work together on the acclaimed Apple TV comedy series The Studio, in which the Goodfellas director played a fictionalized version of himself.
As for Cleopatra, the project was subsequently linked to filmmakers such as Denis Villeneuve but has yet to make it to the big screen.
Scorsese’s next movie, What Happens at Night, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, and will hit theaters next year. As for Rogen, Season 2 of his hit AppleTV series The Studio will likely return early next year, while his next starring role will come in the comedy film Babies.