Martin Scorsese revealed that his planned film adaptation of Cleopatra starring Angelina Jolie was ultimately canceled because of the 2014 Sony hack and the controversy surrounding Seth Rogen’s comedy The Interview, as reported by Variety.
The Bottom Line
- Martin Scorsese stated that his biographical epic Cleopatra, which was set to star Angelina Jolie and feature a script by Eric Roth, fell apart in the wake of the 2014 Sony hack.
- The cyberattack was carried out by hackers who targeted Sony Pictures to prevent the release of The Interview, a comedy depicting a fictional assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
- The resulting data breach exposed thousands of private emails, destabilized the studio’s executive leadership, and derailed major productions that were in active development.
The Lost Epics and the Columbia Fallout
More than a decade after the digital breach shook Hollywood, Martin Scorsese recounted the demise of his planned historical epic during an appearance on Tribeca’s Crafty series, speaking with his daughter Francesca Scorsese. The director explained that pre-production was well underway, with a completed script by Eric Roth—who later penned Scorsese’s 2023 feature Killers of the Flower Moon—and Angelina Jolie attached to star as Cleopatra VII.
Martin Scorsese‘s “Cleopatra” never came to fruition, and he says the Angelina Jolie-starrer was nixed because of Seth Rogen and the Sony hack.“We were gonna do Cleopatra at one point, and then they made fun of Kim Jong Un, and he got mad and blew up everybody at Columbia,”… pic.twitter.com/uYx2NONJOo
According to Scorsese, the momentum vanished entirely when the studio suffered a massive cyberattack in November 2014. The hack was launched by a group attempting to block the release of The Interview, a comedy co-directed and co-written by Seth Rogen alongside Evan Goldberg, which starred Rogen and James Franco as journalists recruited to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Recalling the disruption at Columbia Pictures, Scorsese stated, “Remember we were gonna do Cleopatra at one point, and then they made fun of Kim Jong Un, and he got mad and he blew up everybody at Columbia. Seth Rogen, right? And then he got mad, and [it] ruined Cleopatra.”
The Cascade of Leaked Emails and Executive Upheaval
While Seth Rogen was not directly involved in the administrative decisions of the studio, the wide-ranging repercussions of the hack triggered a severe corporate crisis at Sony Pictures. The attack exposed confidential company documents, financial spreadsheets, and internal correspondence to the public.
Among the leaked messages were exchanges involving producer Scott Rudin and studio co-chairman Amy Pascal, which subjected executive leadership to intense public scrutiny and resulted in departures and canceled projects across the lot. No Film School noted that the disruption impacted the careers of the executives who had been involved, leaving the project without internal champions to shepherd it through production.
Yahoo reported that although the FBI later attributed the cyberattack to the North Korean government and threats forced Sony to scrap its planned wide theatrical release, the studio’s broader slate underwent massive restructuring. Despite Jolie’s reported willingness to personally advocate for the project and a completed screenplay, the studio’s pivot to survival mode left the ambitious historical feature permanently shelved.
Production Realities and Alternate Castings
No Film School added that Scorsese’s iteration of the historical drama carried immense ambitions beyond its lead actress, noting that the production had also circled Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis to portray Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, which would have marked a major reunion following Gangs of New York.
Despite the abrupt collapse of the project, industry relationships have largely weathered the historical disruption. Deadline pointed out that Scorsese recently appeared as himself in an episode of Rogen’s Apple TV series The Studio, sharing a meta-narrative in which Rogen’s fictional studio head character accidentally axes one of the director’s passion projects.
| Production Element | Planned Details |
|---|---|
| Director | Martin Scorsese |
| Lead Star | Angelina Jolie (as Cleopatra VII) |
| Screenwriter | Eric Roth |
| Disrupting Event | 2014 Sony Cyberattack |
While various filmmakers have periodically attempted to mount new adaptations of the Egyptian queen’s life in the years since, Scorsese’s high-profile version remains one of the industry’s most notable unproduced epics.
