Reflecting on one of Hollywood's most turbulent industry disruptions, director Martin Scorsese shared that the fallout surrounding Seth Rogen’s 2014 comedy "The Interview" ultimately derailed his long-planned film about Cleopatra. The Oscar-winning filmmaker recounted how the massive Sony cyberattack triggered by the satirical movie altered development slates and put an abrupt end to the high-profile historical drama.
The Unraveling of the Historical Epic
Speaking with his daughter, Francesca Scorsese, on Tribeca’s "Crafty," Scorsese addressed how close the production had been to cameras rolling. He revealed that the creative team had completed script preparations and had secured Angelina Jolie to star as the iconic Egyptian queen, Cleopatra VII.
"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," Scorsese explained during the conversation. Expressing frustration over the abrupt collapse, the filmmaker noted, "We were ready on the script. Angelina Jolie—we were going. She was gonna be Cleopatra VII. It was gonna be really wild."
When his daughter mentioned being upset about the historical drama never coming to fruition, the director maintained his lighthearted critique of the international incident, quipping that she should "tell Seth, because they ruined everything. Just because Kim Jong Un doesn’t have a sense of humor."
The Controversy Behind 'The Interview'
Scorsese's comments trace back to the North Korean state-sponsored cyberattack on Columbia Pictures' parent studio in late 2014, an event that sent shockwaves across the entertainment business. The digital assault was launched in response to "The Interview," a political satire co-written and directed by Seth Rogen alongside Evan Goldberg.
The film centered on a tabloid television host, played by James Franco, and his television producer, portrayed by Rogen, who land a rare interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, played by Randall Park. The plot thickens when the Central Intelligence Agency recruits the pair to carry out an assassination plot against the dictator. The resulting real-world cyber incident heavily disrupted studio operations and altered multiple projects in development across the industry.
Collaboration and Satirical Repercussions Today
Despite the lasting cancellation of the Cleopatra film, the creative relationship between the filmmakers did not suffer permanent damage. Scorsese later collaborated with Rogen by making a cameo appearance as himself in the series premiere of Rogen's Apple TV comedy series, "The Studio."
In a twist echoing real-life Hollywood drama, Rogen’s character in the series, studio executive Matt Remick, ends up responsible for halting a passionate project helmed by Scorsese. While the Cleopatra picture remains one of the notable unproduced projects of modern cinema, the directors' ability to collaborate in subsequent years highlights how Hollywood figures frequently channel real-world studio shakeups into industry comedy.
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Source: Deadline
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