Wonder Woman's Gal Gadot To Play Cleopatra In New Movie Directed By Patty Jenkins

Two of the biggest names behind the Wonder Woman films are working together again on something new. Gal Gadot will play Cleopatra in a period drama about the Egyptian ruler in a new film directed by Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins.

Paramount Pictures won the auction for the movie after an auction with Universal, Warner Bros., Netflix, and Apple said to be in the mix, according to a report from Deadline. The new film will be written by Laeta Kalogridis, who wrote the Martin Scorsese movie Shutter Island. She also co-wrote the script for Alita: Battle Angel and created the Netflix show Altered Carbon.

Pitches to studios were made over Zoom calls, according to Deadline. And this is more than a simple development deal--the report said Paramount is working with "an urgency to mount a big budget theatrical release film as quickly as possible."

This won't be the first biographical movie about Cleopatra, as Elizabeth Taylor portrayed the historical figure in the 1963 movie Cleopatra that won four Oscars.

In addition to the new Gal Gadot film, Deadline reports that former Sony producer Amy Pascal has been developing a Cleopatra film of the book Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. Angelina Jolie was originally attached to this project before Lady Gaga's name entered the mix. According to Deadline, James Cameron, Denis Villenueve, and David Fincher were all considered as candidates to direct. The latest is that Eric Roth (Forest Gump, Munich) is writing a script. As such, Deadline states that Paramount and Sony might be racing to start their movies first.

The next Wonder Woman film, Wonder Woman 1984, is scheduled for release on Christmas Day.