Martin Scorsese accuses Seth Rogen of being responsible for the ‘ruin’ of his film ‘Cleopatra’

Martin Scorsese never managed to make his Cleopatra movie – and it points the blame in a hilarious direction.

THE The Freedmen the filmmaker reflected on his abandoned biopic about the Egyptian leader in a conversation with his daughter, Francesca, in Tribeca’s new video series Cunning.

“We were going to do Cleopatra at one point, then they made fun of (Kim Jong Un), and he got angry and blew up everyone at Columbia,” said the Wolf of Wall Street said the filmmaker. “Seth Rogen, right? And then he got angry, and (it) ruined Cleopatra.”

Scorsese was referring to Rogen’s controversial film The interviewwhich featured a fictional mission to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as its central plot idea. The film sparked a threat from the North Korean government and then a massive hack by Sony Pictures that leaked private emails and exclusive information about the studio’s inner workings. The FBI ultimately concluded that the North Korean government ordered the hack, which disrupted the studio’s plans.

THE Irish filmmaker indicated that his Cleopatra The project was ready to go with Angelina Jolie in the lead role before the Sony hack disrupted its plans.

“We were going to do it,” he said, noting screenwriter Eric Roth, with whom he later collaborated on the 2023 film. Flower Moon Killershad to write the screenplay. “Angelina Jolie. We were going. She was going to be Cleopatra VII. It was going to be really wild.”

“Seth, you ruined Cleopatra!” » The filmmaker’s daughter said half-jokingly. “I’m so angry about this.”

Scorsese replied, “Well, tell Seth, because they ruined everything. Just because Kim Jong Un doesn’t have a sense of humor.”

Weekly Entertainment has contacted Rogen’s representatives for comment.

There doesn’t seem to be too much bad blood between Scorsese and Rogen, since the legendary filmmaker acted as a fictionalized version of himself in the first episode of Rogen’s popular Apple TV series. The Workshop. Scorsese’s script for the series saw Matt Remick, head of Rogen’s fiction studio, hire the Taxi driver filmmaker to make a Kool-Aid movie…until he was pressured to cancel the project in favor of another Nicholas Stoller Kool-Aid movie.

Rogen, who co-directed every episode of The Workshoppreviously spoke to EW about what it was like working with Scorsese on the project.

“It was very scary working with Martin Scorsese until this happened, and then it was a lot of fun,” said the Knocked up said the star. “I had almost never met him. We sent him the script and we just heard, ‘He loves it. He’s up for it.'”

Rogen said he was concerned that Scorsese would disapprove of the series’ visual style, which makes each scene appear to take place in one long, uninterrupted take (just one, for short).

“I was so petrified that he showed up and said, ‘Are you only filming this with one camera? Are you shooting two?’ that I actually had a second camera crew sequestered in another room,” Rogen said. “It was actually the film crew of Flower Moon Killersso if he got suspicious of me, I knew I could just bring in those familiar faces.

However, Rogen said Scorsese appreciated the oners’ ambition. “It was purely based on my own fear that he would criticize our staging choices, but he didn’t do that,” said the Pineapple Express said the star. “I was like, ‘We’re doing it all at once.’ As soon as he saw it, he said, “Great.” It’s like the French New Wave. I love it. It’s perfect.’”

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He added: “He was so funny and great, and honestly, as soon as he walked in the room, his energy was so good that everyone just relaxed.”