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Denis Villeneuve in talks to direct Cleopatra for Sony Pictures

I guess if you can make a Blade Runner sequel and nail it, you can make anything.

Well, besides Lawrence of Arabia...

Edit:

Next up.

Lawrence of Arabia, starring Channing Tatum as Lawrence.

Shoot me now.


Let’s be honest, who would be able to pull off a Lawrence better than or even equal to Peter O’toole?
 

elyetis

Member
Monica Belucci already was the definitive Cleopatra in 2002's Mission Cléopâtre though.

1b6ad8ca56f4a655d8974c151e3b0311.jpg
It's one of the best movie ever, but for once hollywood tendency to cast younger women with older men would closer to the truth ( something like 30 year difference between Caesar and Cleopatra I think ) than the 6 years difference there was between Belucci & Chabat ( not that it did matter in that movie since it's a comedy ).
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
French interview with Denis here, no subs

Barely touches Cleopatra but acknowledges it. Says that Dune will happen, if his vision gets accepted by the studio/producers. But he sure talks about Bond a lot. He talked with Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig, and he wants to do it. It's all about timing, and schedules. But the way he talks really makes it sound like that's going to be his next film.
 

Dopus

Banned
Mixed with what? She's a direct descendant of Alexander the Great and her entire bloodline is filled with incest.

Ptolemy, not Alexander.

And he was Macedonian to be specific, as was the Ptolemaic dynasty until the last few generations.
 
French interview with Denis here, no subs

Barely touches Cleopatra but acknowledges it. Says that Dune will happen, if his vision gets accepted by the studio/producers. But he sure talks about Bond a lot. He talked with Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig, and he wants to do it. It's all about timing, and schedules. But the way he talks really makes it sound like that's going to be his next film.

Still can't believe he's making Dune. Fuck, man. I almost cried when I read he was officially attached.

That project can't fall apart. I am not allowing it.
 

Dommo

Member
Seriously, who asked for this?

Outside of the biggest summer tentpole films, who asks for anything? Who's asking for Dune? Who asked for Blade Runner? Who was even asking for a new Star Wars? Hollywood is a series of throwing shit to the wall, bringing in creative people who think they could make something good out of it/convince the masses to go see it and hopefully it pays off.

If the film industry was just films that people were asking for it'd be extremely, extremely dull.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
French interview with Denis here, no subs

Barely touches Cleopatra but acknowledges it. Says that Dune will happen, if his vision gets accepted by the studio/producers. But he sure talks about Bond a lot. He talked with Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig, and he wants to do it. It's all about timing, and schedules. But the way he talks really makes it sound like that's going to be his next film.

You can tell DV is the hottest director in Hollywood right now.

Dune? Bond? Cleopatra?

Really hoping BR knocks it out of the park so he's 5/5
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
French interview with Denis here, no subs

Barely touches Cleopatra but acknowledges it. Says that Dune will happen, if his vision gets accepted by the studio/producers. But he sure talks about Bond a lot. He talked with Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig, and he wants to do it. It's all about timing, and schedules. But the way he talks really makes it sound like that's going to be his next film.

My brief translation of the stuff that might be of interest:

Blade Runner
<Q> [Blade Runner] superfans will be mad if you mess this up, they'll be scrutinizing your every move, how's that for pressure? <A> Ridley did a good job on the world and the story, and I think with this stuff I had a good base to be able to execute good science fiction. i'm getting used to working under pressure... [more stuff] Ridley gave me carte blanche, he didn't lurk over my shoulder, he gave me the keys to the kingdom.

<Q> A french journalist saw the film and said it's like Blade Runner, but Denis Villeneuve. What do you think? <A> i don't want to respond to any individual reviews until i see what the overall critical and public audience says.

[a propos of nothing] <A> Montreal is where the film was born. I holed up with Roger Deakins in a hotel a few blocks that way and we shaped the film.

<A> Science fiction is interesting to me insofar as it reflects the world of today. this is a film of today. science fiction lets us really engage with themes that would seem annoying or jarring in a conventional drama, but here they work.

<A> I really liked the Philip K. Dick short stories and found them helpful when thinking about the film, Ridley didn't.

On His Career Taking Off
<A> Budget around 150 million

<Q> Would you come back and do another [like Polytechnique, his first film] little 5 million dollar film in Quebec? <A> yeah, of course, the budget is just a thing you need to realize an idea, Blade Runner needed 150 million because of what it is.

What's Next
<Q> yeah, but you're obviously taking on bigger work. I'm told you're on cleopatra? <A> I like picking up projects under the radar, I begin by talking to people. This stuff has a way of making it into the press, but I want to be able to have these kinds of early discussions. you're mostly reading stuff about projects I'd be doing in 5, 6, or 7 years. I'm also attached to "Dune" -- it's not written yet, we're still in the scenario pre-production. I would really like to do this.

<Q> We're also reading you're circling Bond? Really? Have you talked with Daniel Craig? <A> I can't comment on this either, unfortunately, but I have a relationship with Barbara Broccoli and Daniel Craig.

<Q> Right but would you like to make a Bond film? <A> It would be a pleasure, a real pleasure. It's a character that has followed me from childhood, through adolescence, through now... it'd be a pleasure. It wouldn't even be work, it would just be pleasure... but there are a lot of factors that go in to making a film, a lot of early stuff.

My take is that Bond is not confirmed, Cleopatra is not guaranteed, and Dune is likely to happen but very early. Any errors in the translation are mine, I only had around 30 minutes so most of this stuff has only been listened to once and I had a very tight timeline to edit some of the stuff I missed the first time around.
 
Cleopatra is in my eyes more difficult to pull off than Dune. Because you're not just trying to tell a complex story in the framework of one of the most legendary female figures in all of human history, but also navigate telling the story in a context that makes sense for modern audiences.
As culture changes, we get new spins on old stories. The race thing could be a massive red flag on about why not to make the film. But there are other things as well; She was said to be beautiful, but not by western standards. What they perceived to be sexy we might not find so.

Then there is also the question of the framework of her story. Because her story is Caesars story. Their adventures in Egypt is something out of a Indiana Jones movies, and both their ends in Rome is sad and defiant. But that is tied into so much much more important history.


I am interested in seeing how Assassins Creed Origins will handle it later next this month. Cleopatra is said to be a major character character in the game. And I think they hit on a compromise that made sense with regards to her racial features;

 

llien

Member
Can we not have a female director instead

Men directing women’s stories will always be flavoured by men’s understanding of women.

I do not mind having female director.
Yet I do mind the narrative of "flavored understanding", which, if applied consistently, will end in "segregation". It is particularly appalling in a world where people argue that genders are social constructs.
 
Can we not have a female director instead

Men directing women’s stories will always be flavoured by men’s understanding of women.

Not that I disagree, I’d love a woman on this, but I think Denis handles women a lot better than most male directors. Amy Adams character in Arrival and Emily Blunt’s in Sicario were both great women characters.
 

M.J. Doja

Banned
Slap a wig on a pale-skinned pretty woman with big tits and call it a day.

You know there are soooo many fair-skinned people living in Northern Africa. Plus, as far as being a ruler of Egypt? Of course she's solely inbred, to protect her pure, fair skin!

The idea that nobody would accept a black woman but would rather have European or Israeli people play Cleopatra just seems so.... Hollywood. You'd rather argue shes inbred to all mutated hell, than accept that she could be just a little bit "BLACK".

Either way, Hollywood will make this white, since the audience wouldn't accept Caesar and Antony falling for a dark-skinned queen, not in their history. Wouldn't watch this anyway.
 
Not that I disagree, I'd love a woman on this, but I think Denis handles women a lot better than most male directors. Amy Adams character in Arrival and Emily Blunt's in Sicario were both great women characters.

Also see: Un 32 août sur Terre, Maelström, Polytechnique and Incendies. The guy has made more movies starring women than men, and all were well-written.
 
Slap a wig on a pale-skinned pretty woman with big tits and call it a day.

You know there are soooo many fair-skinned people living in Northern Africa. Plus, as far as being a ruler of Egypt? Of course she's solely inbred, to protect her pure, fair skin!

The idea that nobody would accept a black woman but would rather have European or Israeli people play Cleopatra just seems so.... Hollywood. You'd rather argue shes inbred to all mutated hell, than accept that she could be just a little bit "BLACK".

Either way, Hollywood will make this white, since the audience wouldn't accept Caesar and Antony falling for a dark-skinned queen, not in their history. Wouldn't watch this anyway.

Someone needs a history lesson
 
Slap a wig on a pale-skinned pretty woman with big tits and call it a day.

You know there are soooo many fair-skinned people living in Northern Africa. Plus, as far as being a ruler of Egypt? Of course she's solely inbred, to protect her pure, fair skin!

The idea that nobody would accept a black woman but would rather have European or Israeli people play Cleopatra just seems so.... Hollywood. You'd rather argue shes inbred to all mutated hell, than accept that she could be just a little bit "BLACK".

Either way, Hollywood will make this white, since the audience wouldn't accept Caesar and Antony falling for a dark-skinned queen, not in their history. Wouldn't watch this anyway.

She was 100% Greek. She's like the only Ptolemaic ruler to actually learn Egyptian. All others refused and just used Greek. She's as Egyptian as Queen Victoria was Indian.
 

Kinyou

Member
Slap a wig on a pale-skinned pretty woman with big tits and call it a day.

You know there are soooo many fair-skinned people living in Northern Africa. Plus, as far as being a ruler of Egypt? Of course she's solely inbred, to protect her pure, fair skin!

The idea that nobody would accept a black woman but would rather have European or Israeli people play Cleopatra just seems so.... Hollywood. You'd rather argue shes inbred to all mutated hell, than accept that she could be just a little bit "BLACK".

Either way, Hollywood will make this white, since the audience wouldn't accept Caesar and Antony falling for a dark-skinned queen, not in their history. Wouldn't watch this anyway.
It's not about what people want to argue, it's about what's backed up by history

To sum up: it is quite possible that Cleopatra was pure Macedonian Greek. But it is probable that she had some Egyptian blood, although the amount is uncertain. Certainly it was no more than half, and probably less. The best evidence is that she was three-quarters Macedonian Greek and one-quarter Egyptian. There is no room for anything else, certainly not for any black African blood.

https://blog.oup.com/2010/12/cleopatra-2/

You talk about the incest as if it's some fairytale, meanwhile Cleopatra herself was married to two of her brothers.
 
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