Wonder Woman: 1984 hasn’t even come out, but Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot are already eyeing their next collaboration. It’s a project which has been making the rounds for several years, and various actresses, producers and directors have been attached to it at various times. Cleopatra! Gal Gadot has been cast as Cleo in a film directed by Jenkins. I’m old enough to remember when Angelina Jolie was loosely attached to a Cleo project too, and I’m sure this is probably the same “historical bio-pic.”
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot are reuniting for another costume drama. The duo will reteam for Cleopatra, a historical biopic in the works from Paramount Pictures, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Jenkins will direct the drama based on a script penned by Laeta Kalogridis, with Charles Roven of Atlas Entertainment, Gadot and Jaron Varsano of Pilot Wave Motion Pictures banner producing. Gadot will play Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt role made famous by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 classic.
“I love embarking on new journeys, I love the excitement of new projects, the thrill of bringing new stories to life. Cleopatra is a story I wanted to tell for a very long time.Can’t be more grateful about this A team,” Gadot tweeted of the film.
Wonder Woman, the highest-grossing live-action film ever by a female helmer, was expected to produce more opportunities for female creative talent. Gadot’s Pilot Wave Motion Pictures originated the project, which landed with Paramount Pictures after a studio auction.
There’s a lot of talk online, on social media, about Gadot’s casting and the actual historical record of Cleopatra. Racially, Cleo was Macedonian Greek, but historical accounts aren’t sure if she really presented as “white.” Of course it’s more complicated than that. Historical accounts of the real Cleo also say that she really was never this “Helen of Troy” figure, that she wasn’t some grand beauty – she was seductive because of her mind and her power. Anyway… should Gal Gadot have said no to this one? Blah. I just don’t think we need another Cleo movie in general. (And hey, at least Scarlett Johansson wasn’t cast as Cleo. Maybe ScarJo will play Marc Antony.)
As you might have heard I teamed up with @PattyJenks and @LKalogridis to bring the story of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, to the big screen in a way she’s never been seen before. To tell her story for the first time through women's eyes, both behind and in front of the camera. pic.twitter.com/k5eyTIfzjB
— Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) October 12, 2020
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I don’t mind them doing Cleopatra again. She was a fascinating woman and at least her biopic hasn’t been done in a long long time (I’m sick of all the sequels, prequels, spin-offs, remakes and shared universes).
How about another Cleopatra re-do? Or re-interpretation? Or re-money-making for white people with the stories of poc?
People really should educate themselves or at least read the article properly before commenting. Cleopatra was of Macedonian Greek decent. GG is Israeli. Or wait, maybe Jennifer Aniston should play her? She is Greek.
As said, at least Cleopatra has not been done recently (at least not to my knowledge).
And I imagine this won’t be a remake, but a new biography. Hopefully with more focus on her than on the men in her life.
@TANGUERITA honey, everyone knows that her father was Greek. It is her mother’s race/ethnicity that is unknown. Maybe consider that instead of condescending when someone Black or brown expresses concerns.
@ Athyrmose
The best guess we have of her mother are two (who might be just one) ladies from the same dynasty (that really liked marrying close relatives to keep the bloodline pure or something). Plus nobody from that family (Cleo being the first) bothered to learn Egyptian and they ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years. So the possibility of her mother not being of the same Greek origin is minuscule.
Her mother’s ethnicity was either Greek or Egyptian (smaller probabilities).
Which would still fit a woman of Semitic background like Gadot.
The Ptolemies didn’t marry outside of their own family who were all Macedonian Greek so there isn’t a problem there. They were so far removed from their own populace Cleo was the first ruler to actually speak Egyptian.
Exactly. Thank you. Daisy Mai.
@Tanguerita i often forget Jennifer Aniston is infact greek. Her and Cameron Diaz really white washed their images.
I don’t get this. In Europe we would consider that Greek people are white, so how are they “white washing”?
I am not sure it was a conscious effort on their part, or at least on Aniston’s part. She used to talk about her heritage a lot in the interviews, always mentioning her grandmother and talking about her father.
@Sarah that’s exactly what I said.
how did they “white wash” their images?
Aniston talks about her heritage a LOT.
and Diaz kept her given, HISPANIC name and I’ve heard her refer to her Cuban ancestry.
Papa Aniston cut his name, and Aniston did the same, and improved her looks as not to look like him, and be hired. I think her hair would be the biggest feature she changed, whitewashing in a way so many others do.
Cameron… not so much, she kept the Diaz, and, in her case, she’s always had blondish hair as far as I know. She doesn’t have the stereotypical/expected mixed Latina look, and that is fine.
“papa” didn’t “cut the name”, nor did she. her grandfather changed his name upon arrival in America (like so many immigrants do). “improved her looks” so as to get hired more? you mean her nose job, which 98% of actors and actresses do, so that they “get hired”? as for coloring or straightening her hair…please, people in all walks of life color/cut/straighten their hair…some even wear wigs (SHOCKING!). she has never denied her Greek heritage, she’s spoken about it a LOT. she wears it proudly.
people like L’il Kim, who literally lighten their skin, are white washing themselves. Aniston is not.
Halsey wears wigs over her natural hair. is she “whitewashing”? no, because she freely talks about her heritage and claims it proudly.
LOL wow. who is Hasley?
I wonder if it’s the same old tired project that Jolie’s name has been attached for at least a decade?
Agreed! I’m just irritated because as said below, GG is a TERRIBLE actress. I do like the idea of ScarJo as Marc Antony though !!!
😂😂😂😂😂 I vote for ScarJo as Mark Anthony
@ennie I’m surprised you don’t know who Halsey is! She’s one of the more popular singers currently, and this IS a celeb gossip page. But no harm done…
I actually just wanted to agree with the commenters who are talking about how boring Gal Gadot is. Her acting is pretty terrible….I can’t see her bringing anything to this role.
Well since Jenkins works with the same god damn people over and over again
10 to 1 Marc Anthony will be Chris Pine or Pedro Pascal with dark make up slapped on. Good or bad this film should be interesting at least from a production stand point
+1
ScarJo should play the Nile.
I would LOVE a Cleopatra remake about her and her half sister Arsinoë. Cleo was smart and loved power. She aligned herself with the greatest power; aligned with Rome but we all know that story granted they make it more sexy than reality. Instead let’s see her half sister (and brother) raising an army and attempting to fight back to regain Egypts control of itself. After a long fight the sister lost, and was dragged to Rome and in the parade they’d normal kill high profile captures JC was pressured to spare her. She was granted exile at a temple, but was murdered on the sacred ground most likely by Cleopatra/MA’s command when their power was slipping which was a another scandal.
This was exactly my thought! Forget the overdone love interests and focus on her family. I would love a biopic that doesn’t focus solely on Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. IMO, Cleo may have truly cared for them eventually, but both were mostly a means to an end. The truly fascinating story is that of the sisters. I’d pay good money to see a movie that does them real justice.
Considering how Gal Gadot can’t act and Wonder Woman was bad, I’m skipping this one.
It would be nice to have a view more akin to how the only women that make it into Ancient history (and history in general) have to be savagely beautiful femme-fatales with a whole share of the usual rumors attributed to women of power. I’d watch that film.
Yeah not a good actress at all. I found her to even be terrible in the Fast and Furious movies which dont excatly call for an Oscar perfomance .
See this is my problem. She is one of the worst, most wooden actresses out there. Yes, she is beautiful, but…she is barely passable play wonder woman honestly.
Agree, she is very beautiful and seems like a good person but she can’t act and It’s an iconic character that should be played by someone who has a lot of charisma and that knows how to act. It’s like casting Kristen Stewart for Princess Diana. Plus I don’t why hollywood remake the same stories.
I have the perfect actress to play Cleopatra. Has anyone seen the latest cover of InStyle magazine? It is their Beauty Issue with a beautiful (unsmiling shot) of Cynthia Erivo looking like a strong, warrior, badass!!! She is an amazing singer, actress and I think she writes too. She could bring the power house acting.
I mean, I don’t think WW was bad at all–I actually quite enjoyed it. But I can agree that GG leaves a little to be desired in terms of her acting range. That being said, I think that Patty Jenkins is the one director who can focus what limited skills GG has, so I’m not completely turned off by this.
I’m still more excited by Gal’s gestating Hedy Lamarr biopic, TBH.
I think Gal is beautiful, has a LOT of charm and charisma, and is gradually getting better at acting; but she DOES NOT have the acting chops for a meaty role like this. I would like to see a really talented actress who isn’t traditionally beautiful, but has endless force of personality and charisma, play Cleopatra. Preferably someone of Greek extraction. I would also like to see the family politics more than the Roman stuff. Honestly, I would not watch Gal attempt to chew the scenery in a role like this. She does not have the skillset to pull it off.
Definitely not how I’d cast the part, although I have nothing against GG.
I don’t really care where she’s from, I think she’s a horrible actress.
Blackfacing
How? This is not blackface as Kaiser clearly pointed out…as historians online have pointed out…Cleopatra was Greek, not black. Calling something blackface and fighting for the cause is fine, but maybe it would be more powerful if the stance were rooted in fact?
yeah, this person comes across as anhinged.
As I’ve pointed out upthread, those of you insisting that this person was not Black are doing so without “facts.”
Her father was Greek. You don’t have any factual information about her mother’s race or ethnicity.
The Ptolemys practiced inbreeding.
Well and also, the concepts of “black” and “white” did not exist in Cleopatra’s time. If you tried to tell an Athenian or Roman that they had anything in common with a Celtic tribesman, they would have laughed in your face or been horribly offended.
Athyrmose, even if we were to not know Cleopatra’s mother’s ethnic or racial background, lobbying the accusation of blackfacing is bull.
The Ptolemaic rulers married in the family. There’s only one very distant conjecture we can make that her mom might have some Egyptian blood: the fact that Cleopatra finds refuge in Memphis with the priestly class there for a while. And that’s all. In case you’re wondering, ancient Egyptians saw themselves different than Nubians or Parts and so on.
Athyrmose, no one does. Sources are limited and contradictory about who her mother was, and there isn’t anything for certain.
Discussions of her race are moot when we have no idea half of her ancestry.
Personally, I think her coloring is probably like the people of Faiyum mummie paintings, who were known to a mix of Greek, native Egyptian, Syrian, etc.
An Israeli playing an Egyptian Queen is not going to go down well.
And I am so tired of Cleopatra because she is not the only queen. Nefertiri was more beautiful, more intelligent and more powerful than Cleopatra. She was erased from history so it’s about time they did a movie about her.
And lets not forget Queen Hatshepsut!!!!!
I am completely here for a Queen Hatshepsut bio! That would be amazing.
ITA! Or a movie about Akenathen and Nefertiti – and the religious power struggle he created with his Aten cult and his desire to turn Egypt monotheistic. There’s this Danish comic book series about a Minoan woman who lives in Egypt in the Amon temple during the reign of Akenathen and she gets embroiled in all the palace and temple intrigue so I’ve loved that period and been fascinated by it since I was a child.
This sounds really cool – would love to see that!
If they make it, I demand the soundtrack be entirely from the Philip Glass opera
She was a badass. I’d definitely be down for it.
Exactly- why make a movie about a Greek colonizer who’s already had a multiple movies about her when cooler queens exist??
All those cultures colonized. Egypt was what it was because of their expansion. Northern Africans invaded Europe and stayed there for centuries, too, Romans colonized other parts, not only Greeks, and Arabs invaded so much.
The Ptolomies tried to remain independent from Rome, Greek was the official language,Egyptian was the common language, but were overpowered by Rome, and later, by Arab invaders who permeated their culture.
The only remains of the original Egyptian language can be found in the Coptic Orthodox church rituals. How terribly sad that such an Empire lost even their language.
@ennie I didn’t know that, thank you! Egyptology is really cool but I should do more research before making assumptions. Who would you make a movie about instead?
Any important woman I think deserves to be known. Cleopatra is cool, but if they could do films about other important women who have not been portrayed as much,I’d watch.
Gal is very beautiful, but she couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag. Maybe I’m just cranky because I feel dumber for having seen her dumb “Imagine” video at the start of quarantine.
There will likely be outrage when the news spreads that an Israeli will be playing the most famous Egyptian woman. Ah well.
Make a movie about Hatshepsut instead. I would definitely go see that.
Hear hear. That was one bad bitch.
I am not sure this movie would be worth all the headaches it will probably cause. If I recall the movie with Elizabeth Taylor had a hard time being profitable because it was so expensive. Can Gal bring a blockbuster audience for a non Wonder Woman movie?
I have gotten into some tense arguments with a few African American coworkers in the past over Cleopatra. They would argue that she was African and also not white. We have two different arguments here. First, according to historians she and her family were not considered “African” nor “Egyptian” due to the Greek Macedonian blood lines left by Alexander the Great. She even spoke Greek. Second, due to her genetic DNA, she did look more “Greek” her nose was also more of the Greek Macedonian nose and hair more like what we see in Knossos paintings – again from Southern Greece.
And Kaiser is correct, she was no beauty. She was able to mesmerize with her wit and personality. Which I am sure she sharpened since she was smart enough to know with out the beauty she needed to hone other attributes.
That said, I still cannot wait to see. The Liz Taylor rendition never did it for me. Liz portrayed her as cold and unpassionate – which if she captured the hearts of men even though she was the ideal beauty proably was not the case.
Cleopatra is the product of generations of inbreeding, aka incest, so it is highly doubtful she would have been beautiful in the modern sense. I think the Liz Taylor movie left a false image because even the busts done contemporaneously don’t show anyone that would be considered beautiful. She likely had charisma and bagged a few powerful Romans so her story got told and Shakespeare’s play helped as well. There are other stories that can be told about other women.
To be fair, we only have the men’s word that they bagged her!
Her reputation for beauty partially came from the fact that historians could not imagine a woman being desirable without it. Though, we also need to remember that beauty standards of the past are not the same as ours. So pointing at contemporary busts is not really informative of how she would have been viewed at the time.
I’ve recently read a biography of Cleopatra – and the family history was absolute bonkers! Generations of inter-family marriage, if not full siblings the half-siblings or uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews. They married, fucked and murdered each other. They were so murderous that the legitimate line actually died out. They had to bring in a bastard Ptolemy to keep the dynasty going.
I’ve always loved the fact that Cleopatra wasn’t beautiful but she was intelligent, witty and incredibly charismatic.
The Egyptian Pharaohs before the Ptolemies practiced dynastic incest. It isn’t that uncommon for royal families (the Incas also practiced it).
Yeah, the 18th Dynasty in particular was quite inbred. An examination of Tutankamon’s mummy showed a number of defects that was the result of extensive inbreeding.
Exactly. And (historian here) a few generations earlier, most of the Egyptian royalty was actually from Phoenician descent — due to shipping hegemony in the region. Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic-speaking thalassocratic civilization that originated in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon, so Gal is dead on in terms of representation.
I’m a descendant of the Phoenicians here, and Gal Gadot is totally WRONG and harmful for representation. I’m Lebanese, and we learn a lot about Phoenicia in history classes, and the towns spread all the way to Palestine. Only Palestinians and Lebanese are representative, Gal Gadot is absolutely not. Israelis are colonial settlers on stolen Indigenous Palestinian land, so it’s actually really harmful and dangerous to say that Gal would be spot on. I realize that may not be your intention to offend, but it’s really important for me to educate people. I would want to know these things too if I wasn’t from the region!
Colonial? I’m sorry, were the Jewish not originally expelled from where they lived at different points in time?
the religious wars and invasions have created exodus from different people in different regions all over the world.
@Yasmine:
1. I’m an Ashkenazic Jew. According to 23 and Me I’m 99.9% Ashkenazic from Europe and before that the Middle East. My ancestors lived in the ME until we were sold into slavery and sent out into the diaspora. Maybe take a listen to the Israeli National Anthem, HaTikvah. To paraphrase– it’s been the hope of our people for the last 2000 years to return to our land.
2. Gal Gadot is from Petach Tikvah. When my grandparents moved there from Germany in 1932 they didn’t knock off some person and steal their land. They bought it. I don’t know from whom but I do know it was purchased.
3. My mom was a senior in high school in 1948 when Israel was officially recognized by the UN as a nation. My mom spoke of dancing in the streets because (she would dryly state) the war didn’t start until the next morning. She also spoke of the fact that the Arab leaders drove around Petach Tikvah and announced on loudspeakers that their people should leave their houses. They said that the war should be over in just a few days and then they could return.
Sorry, but Gal Gadot and I are also indigenous.
Most Europeans, especially in the Southern parts, can trace their ancestry to the MENA region in some way. Population exchanges were and still are common in the areas. That does not make them indigenous to the Levant. That’s not how it works. You are definitely European.
To @seraphina
Was there really a need for you to put your ‘Black co workers,’ on blast claiming you supposedly had these conversations with them leading to what you claim (insert angry black woman trope here).
It sounds ridiculous.
First of all the notion of ‘race,’ that you apply is a westernized social construct of recent history, it doesn’t apply to Egyptian dynasties. For ex Khufu, regarded present day as having a Black phenotype (as much of the old dynasties do) commissioned the Pyramids, that’s about 2,510 yrs before Cleopatra 7 was born. Do you know what your ancestors looked like or where they were 2,500 yrs ago? To say a Hellenic Egyptian or even a transplanted Greek wasn’t mixed race in an African country, esp when you don’t know half the DNA story, is indicative of the social way ‘race’ fckery colors our conversations. Lineages among humans are mixed, unmixed and mixed again and unmixed again. Get over it. She was most likely a mixed ‘race,’ woman (as we view it today) of mostly Greek descent. The depiction of her on coinage, is one that looks largely Mediterranean as we think of it today, but with very veey tightly coiled hair. In fact one literally has a hairline with very tiny balls of hair.
Yea sis, I know.
The Ptolemies were an imported line 2000+ years later so of course they’re going to be different from Khufu. They were literally started and ended by a Macedonian Greek, the founder of the dynasty was a friend of Alexander the Great, they may have even shared a father. There are records of all these marriages and where all these people came from, the first two Ptolemies married women from around that Greece/Turkey region and by the third generation they started inbreeding. You can’t put a modern ‘race’ spin on this because while it wasn’t considered the same back then family and where you were from certainly was, no Ptolemy was marrying and having kids with a local Egyptian. They probably spread a few kids around but their royal lineage stayed the same. The African country they happened to rule never once entered the equation in their family dynamics.
She’s not a great actress and so many other interesting women in history that Hollywood could also explore. But good luck to the filmmakers
I can picture Gal as Cleopatra, for sure. I’m just not sure if she can pull her weight acting-wise in a drama. Her meh skills don’t bother me on Wonder Woman but it might be more glaring here.
Gal Gadot is not a good actress. Wonder Woman worked because of her charisma, Patty’s direction and possibly the hunger for a female superhero, but Gal’s performance was incredibly weak. I don’t the she has the gravitas or talent to portray a person with this much historical significance. Gal hasn’t been proven to be a box office draw outside of WW and even with such a major role as Diana Prince, Gal isn’t necessarily a household name yet. I think producers who should go with an unknown who is actually talented and maybe play Cleopatra as the unattractive, cunning woman that she was.
I love a historical biopic, but putting Cleopatra to film or stage is sort of historically cursed, right? The Liz Taylor and Vivien Leigh versions both lost a ton of money, and stage versions of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” tend not to do well either. I hope they can keep costs in check and have a great script.
Modern special effects should keep costs lower than past efforts, at least
If Shakespeare’s version isn’t making any more they sure put it on a lot!
I would like to see an actress glorifying a story over a script written to glorify a bad actress. Come on directors. You have to know we’ve been subjected to premium performances in both tv series and full feature. And we know when a character’s talent makes us forget it’s a performance. Why continue to have your abysmal myopic managerial skills undermine who you think you are? 😁
There is a real desire for white people to lay claim to Africa through Egypt, and Cleopatra is a large part of that. It’s a way to erase the historical and current reality of Black Africans as Egyptians too. There are so many African queens and dynasties across the continent that would make fascinating cinema. Why this again? We know why.
+1000
THIS RIGHT HERE.
Because Americans are kind of stupid and uninterested in actual history, but the glossy famous parts interest us.
Honestly, having studied a little of Egyptian history and of the many African empires, I just don’t think most people have any idea of it.
I agree with this. I think there are a lot more interesting Queens whose stories have not been told, and not only is Gal a terrible actress, but this story has been done and redone, and I’m just not interested.
@Jane Doe Very true. White folks have practically sawed Egypt off the African continent.
i cackaled out LOUD at the Scar ref LMAO …the movie eh whateves
People are bugged because not only Gal Gadot cannot act but she is also a charisma void. There are better white women to play a whitewashed Cleopatra. This is a terrible casting choice and if the movie does get made and released it will bomb. Because no one cares about Gal Gadot.
I love Gal Gadot and think she will be great! I think this will be an interesting show.
IDC about accuracy, Iman (at any gd age) is my Cleopatra…remember that Remember the Time video?! (Ignore MJ)
OMG yes! And Eddie Murphy was the pharoah?!
I thought she was supposed to be Nefertiti in that video….it’s been awhile, but she kind of resembles her famous bust.
I think Gal was perfectly fine in wonder woman. Tbh, I think most actors in Dc/Marvel are “perfectly fine”. Their acting does not blow me away but good enough for it to not be jarring. I didn’t watch Gal’s other movies but I know there’s one apparently coming up. Will see it I guess. I think she worked well in WW, but i cant picture her in other roles.
IDK I don’t care enough to be outraged over the casting if cleo was white passing at the very least.
See, I feel like a lot of Marvel actors are exceptional in their roles. RDJ as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Tom Hiddleston as Loki…I honestly think many Marvel actors fit their roles quite brilliantly.
It’s going to be epic Hollywood nonsense…and I am here for it. 😁 (Yep, 2020 has done me in). To be honest I’d rather a movie about the making of the Burton/Taylor Cleopatra.
Her acting is ROUGH, but Patty Jenkins has worked miracles with her in Wonder Woman. Now we just sit back and wait for what hot as hell Italian actors in their 30s/early 40s they cast as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony; even though to be even a bit historically accurate Caesar would be at least 30 years older (so an actor in their 60s) than her and Antony at least 13 years older (so close to 50). Well it is Hollywood, so maybe they will get the much older men part right!
Or maybe the Italian thing (and yes I know it wasn’t “Italy” at the time, you know what I mean) is even a step too far towards accuracy…Chris Pine, call your agent!
Another white women playing Cleopatra! Yes she was of Macedonia origins but as ancient portraits show she had tanner complection. Gal is much fairer!! I wonder what language they will do?! If its English gals accent will be the same as wonder woman so I hope we see her doing ancient language like in the mummy.
Hollywood apparently is out of original scripts. There are far more intresting stories yet to be put on the big screen. I wouldve liked them to do a film about Nefertiti
Idk, whether or not Gal is considered white is I think a classification she gets to make for herself. She is fair-skinned, and there are legitimate criticisms about constantly casting actresses with fair skin in major roles, but calling her white runs the risk of erasing her own background, too.
Not into it.
Gals okay, I didn’t mind her as WW but I don’t think she’s a super strong actress.
And I’d like for the role to go to someone else.
We don’t need more representation of tall very slender and beautiful women taking roles, especially when it’s not called for.
I’m happy that a Mediterranean actress plays Cleoapatra. I would have loved an Arab actress too. Israeli and Egyptian people are very close, so that’s a good choice. I hope there will be diversity in the cast, tho.
As many others have said, Cleopatra was not Egyptian or otherwise African. Even her name isn’t Egyptian. She was Greek, and actually the first person in her family to even bother to learn how to *speak* Egyptian. While her mother isn’t recorded in history, it’s more than reasonable to assume that her mom was a sister or first cousin to her dad, since that’s how the ruling classes did it back then.
Cleopatra *should* be played by a non-black woman because that’s historically accurate. It’s not whitewashing. BUT!! Should we even make another Cleopatra movie instead of one about an Egyptian Queen who was actually Egyptian? I’m thinking no…no, we shouldn’t.
That’s where the real whitewashing comes in, if you ask me — that the story of a non-African Egyptian Queen has long overshadowed other Egyptian queens.