What World Leader Got in the Way of Martin Scorsese's Angelina Jolie-Starring 'Cleopatra' Movie?
The Sony hack took so much from us.
'Cleopatra'
Is Kim Jung Un dead? That rumor was floating around recently and seemed like a fun one. I'm not sure we ever got confirmation on that.
But right off the bat, I'll tell you that, along with all the atrocities and human rights violations he's committed, he also ruined a Scorsese movie, and I'm really miffed.
Martin Scorsese just pulled back the curtain on one of the most intriguing lost epics in modern cinema: a high-budget ‘Cleopatra’ starring Angelina Jolie, with Leonardo DiCaprio, and possibly Daniel Day-Lewis joining her, that was taken from us because the leader of North Korea has no idea how to laugh.
Basically, before the 2014 Sony hack, Columbia was making this movie, and once the hack hit, it destroyed the careers of all the executives involved, and the film fell by the wayside.
You can see Scorsese and his daughter, Francesca, talk about it in the new Netflix series, Crafty.
Let's dive in.
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The Dream Team That Never Was
So, thanks to the hack, we have leaked emails from the time that show Jolie was so committed to working with Scorsese that she offered to fly out to plead her case directly. The pitch worked, and Scorsese officially came on board.
Okay, so Scorsese was deeply enthusiastic about Sony's Cleopatra adaptation, and it checked a bucket-list item: directing a Roman epic.
And the cast he wanted in the movie was pretty staggering.
- Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra
- Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, marking a monumental Gangs of New York reunion
Scorsese said:
Seth Rogen made fun of Kim Jong Un [in 'The Interview'] and he got mad and he blew up everybody at Columbia. And then they ruined Cleopatra. We were going to do it, everything was ready on the script. Angelina Jolie was going to be Cleopatra VII. I'm so mad about it.
How the 2014 Sony Hack Killed the Production
The Sony hack was a crazy time. I was working at a prodco with an overall there, and people were going nuts as the execs we interfaced with every day came under intense scrutiny as their private emails were published ot the internet.
It got a few of them fired and canceled.
The whole thing happened because Kim Jung Un hired a group of hackers to get back at Sony for making the movie The Interview.
The fallout sent Sony into survival mode and changed the course of more than a few careers.
But I still think The Interview rocks, and it makes me laugh every time I watch it.
Will Cleopatra Ever Get Made?
Probably not.
Denis Villeneuve and other directors have circled Cleopatra in the years since, but no one has gotten as close as Scorsese’s version.
That's a big "What If" movie that we'll never see.
So, way to go, North Korea!
