zendaya is the number one candidate to play Cleopatra in the new project of the acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve.
Jeff Sneider revealed on the podcast Hot Mic (via FandomWire) that the protagonist of Euphoria is the number one option to give life to the enigmatic woman who ruled the Ancient Egypt in a project that would reunite her with the acclaimed filmmaker.
The news would overboard the premise that Gal Gadot would be chosen to give life to the enigmatic sovereign under the direction of Patty Jenkins.
However, Sneider said the film is in “development hell” (development hell), a term that refers to projects that stay in development for an especially long time before production goes ahead, if ever.
Villeneuve has wanted to make a Cleopatra movie for several years, and according to World of Reel, in 2021 he told TVA that he hoped this would be his next job, before or after the sequel to Dune:
“Of course, there is the second part of Dune, which I hope I get the opportunity to film eventually. But I also have a project for a historical film about the life of Cleopatra. This project is underway and I am very excited. I hope to be able to bring it to the screen before or after filming the second part of Dune”.
What could Cleopatra be about?
The first time the project was heard, which would now be resumed with Zendaya at the helm, was in 2017. At that time, it was suggested that Villeneuve’s tape would be based on the biography of author Stacy Schiff.
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Cleopatra revolves around the last queen of Egypt, one of the most mysterious women in history, despite the fact that we all recognize her name. Legend portrays her as a seductive mermaid, forgetting that, above all else, Cleopatra she was an astute strategist and an ingenious negotiator, a governess capable of directing a fleet, suppressing a popular revolt, controlling the oscillations of the currency and combating the famine of her people.
In his book, Schiff recovered all the classic sources and separated the facts from the fiction to rescue the charismatic queen whose death established a new world order a generation before the birth of Christ.
When was the last time Cleopatra was made into a movie?
The last time Hollywood did a story about the famous queen of Ancient Egypt was in 1963, when elizabeth taylor brought him to life in the film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
The film followed the victorious Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison), who was forced to travel to Egypt in order to avoid civil war caused by the lack of order between Cleopatra VII (elizabeth taylor) And his brother Ptolemy XIII (Richard O’Sullivan), both monarchs of the Egyptian Empire. Soon enough, Caesar will be astonished by the girl’s ferocity and beauty, making her the undisputed queen of Egypt and, after the birth of hers, her son Caesarion, her wife.
The film had mixed reactions and was not very well received by critics, however, it catapulted Taylor to immortality and become a Hollywood icon.
Liz Taylor played Cleopatra in 1963.
But the reality is that the actress, who was filming Suddenly, Last Summer, I was not interested in the project. Convinced that the best way to get her off the list was to ask for an astronomical sum of money, Taylor said she would play Cleopatra if she was paid a million dollars. To her surprise, she received a yes for an answer, and on October 15, 1959, Taylor became the first movie star to receive that amount of money for a single movie. That amount would eventually be multiplied by 7 due to how much filming stretched out.
The film left Taylor as Cleopatra etched in the minds of millions, however, the reality is that the historical character was whitewashed (film whitewashing), as it is shown that she had dark skin and her features were not like Taylor’s.
When will the new version of Cleopatra be released?
The potential movie of Cleopatra and Denis Villeneuve does not have a release date at the moment, and it is most likely that the project will be resumed until after the premiere of dune 2.