Brian Helgeland, the original screenwriter for the scrapped ‘Cleopatra’ movie starring Angelina Jolie, has provided fascinating insights into the project. He described it as a blend of political thriller and romance epic, featuring assassinations, sex, and surprising historical events. “It had elements of a political thriller with assassinations and sex, but it’s an epic that’s divided between her love affairs with Caesar and Marc Antony,” Helgeland said. “Lots of true events surprised me when I was writing it.”
One intriguing revelation is that Cleopatra was present in Rome on the day of Caesar’s assassination, the infamous Ides of March. “They were leaving for Egypt, and the reason why they had to kill him at that time was because he was headed out of town with her,” Helgeland explained. “That’s historically true and featured in the script.”
Another highlight of the script was Cleopatra’s role in writing Marc Antony’s iconic “friends, Romans, countrymen” speech. “She writes Marc Antony’s speech because he doesn’t know what to say, but she tells him what to say,” Helgeland said. “It’s sort of her way of saying ‘fuck you’ to those guys because she’s smart enough and he’s not.”
Despite the promising script and the involvement of a star-studded cast and crew, the ‘Cleopatra’ movie starring Angelina Jolie never came to fruition. However, Helgeland expressed openness to his draft being used in the future. “I don’t have anything to do with the current version unless they call me and want to use my draft,” he said. “I have no idea if that script is being used, but I’ll be very happy if it is.”
Helgeland’s revelations provide a tantalizing glimpse into the ‘Cleopatra’ movie that could have been, highlighting the historical accuracy and intrigue that it promised to deliver. Whether or not Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming ‘Cleopatra’ film incorporates elements from Helgeland’s script remains to be seen, but it certainly sets the stage for another captivating exploration of the iconic Egyptian queen.
