"Wonder Woman" Team to Reunite for Paramount's "Cleopatra"

The actress/director combo behind the Wonder Woman movies are reuniting for another big screen epic about a famous female icon.

While we all wait patiently for the day we can see “Wonder Woman 1984” in theaters, star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins are already planning their next picture together. Deadline Hollywood has broken the news that Jenkins will be helming “Cleopatra”, an epic drama that will see Gadot playing the historical Queen of the Nile. Paramount Pictures nosed out Warner Bros, Universal, Apple and Netflix for the rights to distribute the film.

“Cleopatra” is scripted by Laeta Kalogridis, best known for writing Shutter Island and creating Altered Carbon for Netflix. Gadot pitched the idea to suitors in Hollywood through Zoom meetings along with Jenkins, Kalogridis and producers Charles Roven and Jaron Varsano to describe the type of epic they want to bring to the big screen.

Paramount sees this as a huge priority and hopes that the team can get into production as soon as possible. And for good reason. Jenkins and Gadot helped bring “Wonder Woman” to a $822 million worldwide box office in 2017 with the sequel scheduled for Christmas Day(for now). Aside from its box office, the film was an important milestone for female directed blockbuster filmmaking and the hope is that the same team can do the same for the legendary Egyptian queen.

“Cleopatra” was previously seen a big screen epic of the same name in 1963. Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the movie was known for its large budget at the time and troubled production. Despite being the highest grossing film of that year and winning 4 Oscars, it nearly brought the end of its studio 20th Century Fox. In the decades since, Tinseltown has tried numerous times at an epic for our times. Most notably, Sony Pictures tried for years to have Angelina Jolie play Cleopatra and directors like David Fincher and Denis Villenueve have circled it but the recent news shows that Paramount is one step ahead in bringing this epic to life.

This sounds like quite an exciting project for Jenkins to tackle and show her growth as a filmmaker. Although I kind of wish she would do something similar to her debut Monster, which earned Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar, I have full confidence that she can bring a unique take on the epic film genre. As for Gadot, she is continuing to keep busy with projects. Aside from “WW84”, the Israeli-born actress will be seen in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of “Death on The Nile” and just recently restarted filming on “Red Notice”, the big budget Netflix heist film co starring Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds.

“Cleopatra” doesn’t have a production start date but we will continue to update you on this exciting project.