On the heels of yesterday’s renewed confirmation that Angelina Jolie is on tap to play Cleopatra comes news that the actress is looking to play yet another strong female leader in a fact-based film. Jolie is now attached to star in Gertrude Bell, a biopic about the “female Lawrence of Arabia” who had a huge stake in crafting the “modern framework” of both Jordan and Iraq.
While Bell is not a widely-known name, she was an essential part of the restructuring of the former Ottoman Empire, and her life story is rich enough and deserving enough of a big-scale biopic.
Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions is producing the film, and Scott himself is reportedly considering the film as a directorial outing as well. The director is, however, quite busy, and is considering two other projects for directing aside from Gertrude Bell. Those projects include Gucci, based on the fashion family in their 70s and 80s heyday, and Child 44, a serial killer flick that takes place in Stalinist Russia. Scott will presumably pick one of these projects after his Prometheus opens on June 8, 2012 (a film which is already getting sequel buzz).
Goldeneye and The Constant Gardener scribe Jeffrey Caine has penned the script.
The film is still in development, but with the Jolie attachment and the possibility of a Scott-helming, this one should not languish for long. [THR]
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