Martin Scorsese in Talks to Direct Angelina Jolie’s CLEOPATRA
David Fincher has dropped out as the director of Angelina Jolie’s Cleopatra project at Sony Pictures. The studio executives are now looking at possibly hiring Martin Scorsese to direct the movie. The studio has already had a meeting with the director, and thanks to overtice.com.br, we have details on the proposal for him to direct the movie from an email sent by Mark Wyman to studio executives. The email also reveals that the director wants to bring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis to the project as well. (Note: All quoted emails have been retranslated back into English from Portuguese.)
“He had a conversation with Rick. He said that Marty is interesting, but the proposal will have to ‘impress him’ and he will want a good rate of development and producer credit. He mentioned that he will begin shooting Silence soon, you know something about this film?
“He (Rick) told me that Marty received more than 10MM by Lobo (Wallstreet) and Hugo (Cabret). He (Martin) also said that Daniel Day Lewis and Leo (DiCaprio) would have to be in Cleo, along with Angelina (Jolie).
“He also mentioned a must with Paramount, but he said 'Amy knows about it,' with the implication that ok Paramount co-finance only because 'Amy knows.' I told him that this could be an obstacle, but maybe they could be passive financiers no right to distribution, which he thought might work.
“Let's see what happens.”
I would absolutely love to see Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Day-Lewis team up for another film! They previously worked together on the insanely fantastic Gangs of New York. Here are the three responses that Wyman received:
“We need to be equal partners, so this is certainly something to offer for Paramount. I'd hate to have to give up any distribution in such a film.” - Doug Belgrad
“Angie, Leo, Daniel? I'll believe until there…” - Amy Pascal
“I hate the phrase ‘impress you’ (blow him away in the original), it seems that we have to bribe you to do this.” - Michael De Luca
It doesn’t look like Scorsese has committed to the project yet, but it seems like he is the only director that the studio is pursuing at the moment. Here are the last two opinions on Scorsese's potential involvement with the movie:
“Cleopatra? Marty is committing?” - Jeff Robinov
“Marty's version of Cleopatra is very complicated... but it's just my opinion.” - Pascal
Just because Scorsese’s vision of the film is complicated, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from these leaked emails, it’s that everything that happens in Hollywood is complicated. I’m sure the studio has or will start looking at other directors to see what other visions are out there. I don’t know why you’d want to pass on Scorsese, though. That guy is one of the most talented filmmakers in Hollywood.