UPDATE: It was reported on Dec. 6, 2021 that Kari Skogland (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) would be taking over the Cleopatra film as director, with Jenkins shifting into a producer role as she focuses her attention on Wonder Woman 3 and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. You can read this article as it originally appeared below.
Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins is set to helm a new film based on the Egyptian queen Cleopatra starring none other than Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, in the lead role.
Per Deadline, Paramount Pictures is currently developing Cleopatra after winning an auction for the film. Gadot will star in the biographical period piece as Cleopatra, with Jenkins directing and Laeta Kalogridis (Alita: Battle Angel, The WB's Birds of Prey) penning the script.
Cleopatra will be produced by Charles Roven of Atlas Entertainment alongside Jenkins, Gadot and Gadot's Pilot Wave Motion Pictures partner, Jaron Varsano. Additionally, Kalogridis will executive produce. According to Deadline, the film was actually Gadot's idea and was generated by Pilot Wave, with the Wonder Woman star taking part in a number Zoom pitches alongside Jenkins, Roven and Varsano. Moreover, Kalogridis apparently did a fair amount of research after Gadot picked her for the project, laying out the "beats of an epic story" about the historical queen.
Deadline explains there is an "accelerated timetable" on bringing Cleopatra to the big screen as Paramount moves to put out a big budget theatrical release as quickly as possible, with Kalogridis to begin writing the film immediately. That being said, a release window is not currently known, nor is any casting information available past Gadot's involvement.
A member of the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, her reign lasting 21 years, from 51 BC to 30 BC. The real-life queen has been portrayed in Hollywood films before, such as by Elizabeth Taylor in 1963's Cleopatra, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.
Directed by Patty Jenkins from a script by Laeta Kalogridis, Paramount Pictures' Cleopatra stars Gal Gadot. The film does not currently have a release date.