Angelina Jolie's Cleopatra Will Show Egypt's Queen as More Than a Sex Kitten
THE OBSERVER: British director Paul Greengrass will portray the serpent of the Nile as political strategist and warrior in a new blockbuster film

Actress Elizabeth Taylor in golden headdress and robes in a seductive interpretation of the Egyptian ruler Cleopatra. Photograph: The Observer
Dio Cassius, the Greek historian, said Cleopatra "was a woman of surpassing beauty… and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone". So it stands to reason that the greatest Hollywood beauties of succeeding eras have been cast as the Egyptian queen: from Claudette Colbert and Vivien Leigh, to Elizabeth Taylor and, now, Angelina Jolie. But, judging by the creative team being lined up by Sony Pictures, Jolie's 3D outing in the royal barge of beaten gold is set to rip up all our other assumptions about the fabled temptress.

The screenplay of the forthcoming blockbuster is risking a budget that rivals the studio-busting Taylor epic of 1963 on a fresh, revisionist interpretation of Cleopatra and, it seems, the vision of a maverick British director: Paul Greengrass. >>> Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and media correspondent | Sunday, January 09, 2011