Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese revealed that his long-planned historical drama about Cleopatra collapsed in the wake of the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures, jokingly placing the blame on actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen.
Speaking with his daughter Francesca Scorsese in the premiere episode of Tribeca’s interview series “Crafty,” the 83-year-old director recalled that the studio project came remarkably close to entering production before the fallout from Rogen’s political satire “The Interview” disrupted Hollywood.
“Remember we were gonna do Cleopatra at one point, and then they made fun of [Kim Jong Un], and he got mad and he blew up everybody at Columbia,” Scorsese said during the interview, which was recorded on Thursday. “Seth Rogen, right? And then he got mad, and [it] ruined Cleopatra.”
A Star-Studded Epic That Vanished
According to Scorsese, the film was fully developed and prepared to shoot with Angelina Jolie cast in the title role as Egyptian monarch Cleopatra VII. Screenwriter Eric Roth, who subsequently teamed with Scorsese on the 2023 drama “Killers of the Flower Moon,” had completed the script.
“We were gonna do it,” Scorsese told his daughter, according to Variety. “Angelina Jolie. We were going. She was gonna be Cleopatra VII. It was gonna be really wild.”
When Francesca Scorsese said she remained upset that the movie never happened, her father jokingly replied, “Well, tell Seth, because they ruined everything. Just because Kim Jong Un doesn’t have a sense of humor.”
Scorsese also lamented missing the chance to direct an ancient Roman period piece. Per coverage from TheWrap and Just Jared, the filmmaker joked that director Ridley Scott had since “done [them] all.”
The Fallout from The Interview
The controversy dates back to late 2014, when Sony Pictures prepared to release “The Interview,” an irreverent comedy co-written and directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg. In the film, a talk show host played by James Franco and his producer, played by Rogen, are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un, portrayed by Randall Park.
In November 2014, a state-sponsored hacking collective struck Sony Pictures Entertainment in an effort to suppress the film’s distribution. The FBI eventually attributed the sweeping cyberattack to the North Korean government.
The breach resulted in the disclosure of internal studio files, financial documents and thousands of private executive communications. Among the leaked correspondence were messages sent by producer Scott Rudin to Sony studio chief Amy Pascal, in which Rudin referred to Jolie as a “minimally talented spoiled brat,” Variety reported. The resulting public furor and internal turmoil halted several high-profile studio projects, including Scorsese’s adaptation.
Satire Turned Into Reality
Despite the fallout, Scorsese and Rogen maintain an amicable professional relationship. Scorsese made a guest appearance playing himself in the debut episode of Rogen’s Apple TV comedy series “The Studio.”
In a plotline mirroring the real-life Cleopatra incident, Rogen’s studio executive character Matt Remick winds up responsible for canceling a passion project that Scorsese is trying to make about the Jonestown massacre.
Whether another filmmaker will eventually bring Roth’s Cleopatra script to theaters remains unannounced, as the project has stayed dormant across major Hollywood studios since the Sony leak.
