Martin Scorsese has finally revealed what happened to his Angelina Jolie-led Cleopatra and why it did not see the light of day. Imagine an epic-scale historical drama helmed by cinematic royalty Martin Scorsese and starring Angelina Jolie as the iconic Queen of Egypt. It sounds like an absolute awards-season surefire hit, yet the ambitious blockbuster never made it off the drawing board. Even wilder is the real-world culprit behind its cancellation.

According to Scorsese himself, the grand production ultimately bit the dust because a certain stoner comedy star made fun of a famously thin-skinned world leader.

Recently, Tribeca got Martin Scorsese together with his daughter, Francesca Scorsese, for a fun first episode of its video series Crafty. Trading formal interviews for a candid exchange of ideas, the creative duo dove headfirst into the instinctive drives, foundational memories, and quirky on-set habits.

During all of this, the conversation somehow shifted to Martin Scorsese’s long-held desire to make a big Roman epic. And he even came close with the now-shelved Cleopatra project that Martin Scorsese was supposed to helm, with Angelina Jolie set to play the titular role. But everything fell apart when Seth Rogen’s 2014 action/comedy film with James Franco was released.

“We were going to do it, everything was ready on the script. Angelina Jolie was going to be Cleopatra VII,” Scorsese revealed.

And when Francesca Scorsese expressed her disappointment and frustration over the project being shelved, the Taxi Driver director could only say this:

“Well, tell Seth because they ruined everything.”

According to what Martin Scorsese said on Crafty, it is very hard to make sense of what might be the connection between Seth Rogen’s The Interview and Scorsese’s Cleopatra project when Rogen was not even involved in the film in any capacity. However, when one looks at the plot of the film and what it tried to do with a certain dangerous geopolitical figure, the picture starts to become clear.

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Well, the movie mocks the infamous North Korean dictator who kind of got in the way of Scorsese’s Cleopatra.

The entire plot of Seth Rogen’s The Interview is about a*********** the North Korean dictator (the present leader of the country) who is apparently a big fan of an American journalist and invites him for an exclusive interview with him in North Korea. Long story short, the movie portrays the high North Korean authority in all the ways a powerful dictator would not want to be seen on the big screen.

So, to stop the film, a group of North Korea-backed hackers attacked Sony Pictures, leaking very sensitive company information like production budgets, financial projections, and private conversations between some top executives. Among those leaks were highly sensitive exchanges between producer Scott Rudin and studio head Amy Pascal debating Cleopatra, which infamously exposed internal arguments over Angelina Jolie, the script, and the spiraling budget. This ultimately fractured the production of the film completely, as the focus completely shifted to crisis management. The movie has since been left for dead and never revived again.

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Would have liked to see Martin Scorsese's Cleopatra with Angeline Jolie starring? Do let us know.