'Cleopatra' casting of Israeli actress draws backlash in Egypt

Shahira Amin

Oct 15, 2020

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 06: Gal Gadot attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue) — Gal Gadot attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019, in New York City. — Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Gal Gadot, the Israeli star of "Wonder Woman" fame, ignited a storm of controversy in Egypt on Oct. 11 when she announced she is once again teaming up with "Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins in a new historical film that tells the story of Cleopatra, the legendary queen of Egypt.

The two women are set to produce the biographical drama — Gadot's brainchild — for Paramount. Jenkins directed Gadot's 2017 "Wonder Woman" film based on the American comic superhero of the same name as well as its sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984," expected to be screened in the coming months. Laeta Kalogritis, who wrote the screenplay for Leonardo Di Caprio's "Shutter Island," scripted the new film.