Scorsese Says North Korea's Sony Hack Killed His Angelina Jolie 'Cleopatra' Film

In a wide-ranging, nearly 40-minute interview shared by Tribeca, Martin Scorsese sat down with his daughter Francesca and disclosed that a planned Cleopatra film starring Angelina Jolie was effectively killed by the 2014 North Korean hack of Sony Pictures. Scorsese said Jolie was set to play Cleopatra VII and that the project was going to be "really wild," but the cyberattack put an end to it before it could get off the ground.

The hack was carried out by a North Korean state-sponsored group in retaliation for Sony's planned release of The Interview, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's satirical comedy targeting the North Korean government. The incident leaked troves of confidential Sony employee emails, messages and data. "[Kim Jong Un] got mad and he blew up everybody at Columbia," Scorsese recalled. "[It] ruined 'Cleopatra.'" He jokingly laid the blame on Rogen and Goldberg, quipping that Kim Jong Un simply had no sense of humor.

When his daughter Francesca said she was "so mad" the movie never got made, Scorsese replied, "Well, tell Seth."

It had long been public knowledge that Hollywood was pursuing a major Jolie-led Cleopatra film, with directors including David Fincher, James Cameron, Paul Greengrass and Ang Lee all linked to the project at various points. Scorsese's own near-involvement is newly revealed. After the hack, Sony hired David Scarpa for a Cleopatra rewrite in 2016, and Denis Villeneuve was reportedly in talks to direct in 2017. More recent reports connected Villeneuve to a version starring Zendaya, though his current commitments to Dune: Part Three and the next James Bond film make that prospect unlikely anytime soon.