I wish I could say that this Angelina Jolie to play Cleopatra story is about the Shakespeare play Antony and Cleopatra, but alas it is not. The movie is based on an upcoming biography of the Queen of the Nile.
Still, though, nice to imagine. Although I don’t think I’m ready for her to play Cleopatra, I’d like to pretend she can still get away with Helena/Hermia in Dream, maybe. Or she’d make a killer Shrew. Work her way up to Lady M.
If we got Angelina doing Shakespeare, what role would you give Brad Pitt?
Angelina as Cleopatra and Billy Bob Thornton as Antony. Brad could be the messenger from Rome that Cleopatra beats up for his news.
Apparently, there's been much ado lately over the fact that she's not a "woman of color".
http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/angelina-jolie-criticized-for-playing-cleopatra-2010176
Once again, our skewed, infantile sense of political correctness surfaces, showing its ugly head. I wonder if Guinevere was African American? –NOT. And yet, she has been so depicted on Broadway! And did the Ancient Egyptians depict THEMSELVES as exclusively Nubian?
If there are "rules" when it comes to "legitimate casting" let them apply across the board. If not, then let us rid ourselves of the nonsense completely. Casting is not, by nature, a democratic process in any way at all. Why should we make every niggling attempt to make it what it's not? The childishness of some would be laughable if not so disturbing.