Angelina Jolie as Cleopatra?

Last time we heard about a CLEOPATRA project, it was Steven Soderbergh’s planned (and now apparently dead) 3D rock ’n’ roll musical.

Now it’s reportedly Angelina Jolie who will smear on the heavy eyeliner and don the gold headdress of the legendary Egyptian queen. At least if producer Scott Rudin has his way.

Rudin has acquired the rights to writer Stacy Schiff’s upcoming biography CLEOPATRA: A LIFE, according to USA Today. And while the juicy-lipped A-lister would obviously be high on the wish list for such a regal role, Rudin’s office confirms that the project is “being developed for and with Jolie”.

For those who slept through history, Cleopatra was an Egyptian pharaoh in the 1st century BC. She lived with Julius Caesar in Rome, and then after his assassination she aligned herself with Mark Antony to resist Roman imperialism. Her romance with Antony ended tragically when he killed himself after hearing a false report of her demise, leading her to then take her own life by poisonous asp.

The charismatic Queen of the Nile was perhaps most famously depicted by Elizabeth Taylor in the expensive 1963 epic.