Sony’s Cleopatra Movie Might Finally Happen With Denis Villeneuve Directing

Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SBIFF

There’s been plenty of Hollywood big wigs attached, at one point or another, to direct Sony’s adaptation of Stacy Schiff’s best-selling biography Cleopatra: A Life, but will Arrival filmmaker Denis Villeneuve be the one to make it happen? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Villeneuve is the latest director to be tapped for the gig — a job previously offered to the likes of Ang Lee, David Fincher and James Cameron. While Villeneuve has recently made a name for himself in sci-fi — in addition to Arrival, he directed the upcoming Blade Runner 2049 and he’s slated to tackle Legend’s Dune remake next — the filmmaker made his mark with crime dramas Sicario and Prisoners. While not an obvious pick for the job, his world-building skills and his history shooting thrillers could certainly be applied to a sweeping, bloody epic about the last independent pharaoh before Egypt fell to the Roman Empire.

Denis Villeneuve Might Direct Sony’s Cleopatra Movie