Martin Scorsese was set to direct Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra VII. At a Tribeca conversation with his daughter Francesca on Thursday, October 29, 2026, he explained why it never happened. The reason: a North Korean hacker, a Seth Rogen comedy, and a studio in chaos.
"We were going to do 'Cleopatra' at one point, and then they made fun of Kim Jong [Un]," Scorsese said, according to TheWrap. He was referring to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's 2014 comedy The Interview, which satirized the North Korean leader. What followed was a state-sponsored cyberattack on Sony Pictures that exposed confidential internal emails and destabilized the studio. "He got mad and he blew up everybody at Columbia," Scorsese said. "[It] ruined 'Cleopatra.'"
Jolie was attached to play the Egyptian queen. "Angelina Jolie, we were going. She was Cleopatra VII," Scorsese said. He added, with dry humor: "Just because Kim Jong Un didn't have a sense of humor, you know?"
The project did not end there. Sony hired David Scarpa for a Cleopatra rewrite in 2016. Denis Villeneuve was reportedly in talks to direct in 2017. According to TheWrap, Villeneuve's current commitments to Dune: Part Three and the upcoming James Bond film make any near-term revival of the project unlikely.
The film remains unmade. Scorsese's remarks are the most candid account yet of why.
