Paul Greengrass ThisClose to Directing Angelina Jolie in “Cleopatra”

Having had a hand in ruining the legend of Alexander the Great, Angelina Jolie is closing in on a director to help her take aim at Cleopatra.

Jolie is slated to star in the 3D epic based on the Pulitzer Prize-winner biography Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff, and Paul Greengrass is believed to be the frontrunner to sign on as director, reported Deadline.

Cleopatra's story has been told dozens of times, but according to producer Scott Rudin, what will set this version apart is the fact that Schiff's was the first serious history of the great Egyptian leader written by a woman.

"It is a completely revisionist Cleopatra, a much more grown-up sophisticated version," Rudin told Deadline. "She’s not a sex kitten, she’s a politician, strategist, warrior. In the Joseph Mankiewicz movie, Elizabeth Taylor is a seductress, but the histories of Cleopatra have been written by men. This is the first to be written by a woman."

That's all well and good, and we love us some Greengrass (though not "Green Zone"), but Jolie as an Egyptian queen (we know, old news) just doesn't feel quite right, does it? Wouldn't a less-white 20-something be a better choice? Just sayin'...
 

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