Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Rendezvous With Rama' and ‘Cleopatra' Are “Slowly Moving Forward"

Eric Roth is currently in the middle of writing an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama” for Denis Villeneuve to direct. Of all the projects Villeneuve currently has percolating, this is the one I’m most excited for.

Villeneuve’s long-gestating adaptation of Clarke’s novel is a hell of an ambitious undertaking, tackling space and time. Villeneuve has been attached to ‘Rama’ since even before his long gestating “Cleopatra” had been announced.

The Quebecois filmmaker has now given us an update on ‘Rama,’ and for that matter ‘Cleopatra,’ telling Vanity Fair that both projects are indeed moving forward:

I have too many things right now. It's true that I'm working on “Rendezvous with Rama” and that screenplay is slowly moving forward. “Cleopatra” as well. And “Dune: Messiah”. I'm looking forward to going back behind the camera, and we'll see what will be next.

‘Rama’, which Villeneuve recently described as “Arrival” on steroids (via Empire), tackles a team of astronauts who are sent on a mission to explore a giant interstellar spaceship hurtling toward the sun. Since Clarke is the genius behind “2001: A Space Odyssey” then you can expect some mind-altering sci-fi to fit the proceedings.

Then you have “Cleopatra,” which Villeneuve says is being written by “1917” scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns. David Scarpa (“Napoleon”) had written the original draft, but it looks as though Wilson-Cairns is now taking a crack at it.

Scarpa had previously mentioned that the film would be 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.”

Last November, a grid for “Cleopatra” leaked and revealed that Zendaya had already accepted the role of the young queen of Egypt. Timothée Chalamet had been offered the role of Octavius and Daniel Craig was being sought for Caesar.

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