Scorsese says Sony hack disrupted planned Cleopatra film

Martin Scorsese says the 2014 cyberattack on Sony disrupted his plans to make a Cleopatra film starring Angelina Jolie, though he has not explained exactly how the hack derailed the project.

The 83-year-old director discussed the film in the first episode of *Crafty*, an interview series from the Tribeca Film Festival. He said Jolie was to play Cleopatra VII and that Eric Roth was set to write the screenplay. “We were really going to do it,” Scorsese said. “Angelina Jolie. She was going to play Cleopatra VII. It was going to be really wild.”

Scorsese also referred to Seth Rogen, star of *The Interview*, the Sony comedy about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. “Seth Rogen, right? And then he got angry and ruined that Cleopatra,” he said. The source account does not clarify whom Scorsese meant by “he”.

The hack exposed thousands of Sony emails, including messages in which producer Scott Rudin spoke disparagingly about Jolie. The FBI attributed the cyberattack to North Korea at the time. Scorsese said the Cleopatra project remained in development for a while after the attack.