Love him or hate him, Denis Villeneuve’s filmography is building up as one of the most versatile in the business. These last 10 years, the Quebecois director has released “Incendies,” “Prisoners,” “Sicario,” “Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049” and this coming October’s “Dune.” All critically-acclaimed with massive fan bases. One can certainly say that Villeneuve’s popularity will very soon eclipse fellow rival Christopher Nolan’s — if it hasn’t already.
With that being said, we are expecting an inevitable sequel to “Dune” (that is, if it isn’t a box-office-bomb), but, in a recent interview, Villeneuve hinted that he might first tackle the Queen of Egypt: Cleopatra.
Speaking to Montreal outlet TVA, Villeneuve has confirmed that “Cleopatra” is very much on the way:
“There is of course the second part of Dune, which I hope I have the chance to shoot eventually. But I also have a historical film project on the life of Cleopatra. This project is underway and it excites me a lot. I hope I can bring it to the screen before or after filming the second part of Dune."
There has already been a famous Cleopatra movie released. That one starred Elizabeth Taylor and received mixed reviews in 1963. Its running time was an astounding 4 hours and 8 minutes! It was 1963’s highest grossing film and, despite some inaccuracies, it is considered a fairly accurate look at Ancient Egypt during the time of the last active pharaoh.
Villeneuve will using a screenplay by David Scarpa, Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland. Scarpa has mentioned that the script is “A political thriller. Dirty, bloody, lots of people swearing and having sex and all of that other stuff and just a two-hour, lean, mean political thriller, full of assassinations, etc. Just going the opposite direction from the way we think that movie is going to go.”
A hard R rating is inevitable.
For Schrader, AI solves the curious practical filmmaking problem he had. How about just creating Black people? No casting calls, no agents, no actors turning down the roles.