Gal Gadot & director Patty Jenkins are teaming up again on a new project. The Wonder Woman duo will tackle a biopic about Cleopatra. This was a role once immortalized by Elizabeth Taylor.
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 is set to play Cleopatra. Paramount Pictures will be handling distribution duties. This is the first major project package won by Paramount Motion Picture Group President Emma Watts in an auction that came down to Universal, Warner Bros, Netflix, and Apple.
Paramount prevailed because the studio — led by Watts and chairman/CEO Jim Gianopulos — created an urgency to mount a big-budget theatrical release film as quickly as possible. Kalogridis, whose credits include Alexander, Shutter Island, and most recently Alita: Battle Angel, will begin writing immediately, with Gadot, Jenkins, Roven, and Varsano helping to shape a narrative they all hope might be the next film together for Gadot and Jenkins, who teamed on two Wonder Woman films.
Cleopatra has mostly been played as a seductress and most notably by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 Joseph Mankiewicz-directed Cleopatra. That film cost more than any film to date and despite winning four of the nine Oscars for which it was nominated and being a big hit at the box office, Cleopatra nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Hopefully, this won’t be the case for the Gadot/Jenkins collaboration.
