‘Wonder Woman’ duo, director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot are set to reunite yet again for a feature of the legendary Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra.
Gadot will take on the role of the Queen following in the footsteps of Elizabeth Taylor who so famously played the role in the 1963 film alongside Richard Burton as Mark Anthony.
Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) will write the screenplay for the Gadot/Jenkins feature.
Paramount Pictures won the rights to the project, reportedly beating out other suitors such as Apple, Universal, Warner Bros. and Netflix.
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The 1963 American epic, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz was based on the 1957 book ‘The Life and Times of Cleopatra’ by Carlo Maria Franzero. It chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome taking both Caeser (played by Rex Harrison) and Mark Anthony as lovers before falling deeply for Anthony.
The production was marred by troubles including Taylor contracting pneumonia and undergoing an emergency tracheotomy so she could breathe during filming, halting the production for a number of weeks. The film ended up costing $31 million, not including distribution costs making it the most expensive film ever made, at the time. It almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox.
Wonder Woman 1984, is expected to debut in December.
