MTV recently took the opportunity to bombard Angelina Jolie with shotgun questions regarding her upcoming slate of projects including Tim Burton’s ‘Maleficent,’ Darren Aronofsky’s “Serena,” an adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta series and an revisioned tale of Egyptian queen Cleopatra. While the actress did go as far confirming her involvement in all four, none sound far enough progressed in development to threaten her short term plans.
When first asked about a potential collaboration with Tim Burton on the revisioned ‘Sleeping Beauty’ tale, Jolie noted that she “would love to. It’s all new and being discussed but I’d love to. When I was a little girl she was my favorite. And Tim Burton, the chance to work with him would just be extraordinary.” The live-action project was first announced in March as a re-teaming of Burton and his “Alice In Wonderland” scribe Linda Woolverton before Jolie’s name was thrown about as a potential lead for the revisioned story of the antagonistic witch in Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” story.
Next came her potential teaming with Darren Aronofsky on an adaptation of Ron Rash’s period thriller “Serena” with the actress seeming more enthusiastic about working with Aronofsky — whose projects “The Fighter” and “The Fountain” her partner Brad Pitt boarded and exited — than the film itself. “We’ve talked about it and I’d love to work with Darren one day,” Jolie noted. “So if it’s not that, it’ll be something else but he’s one of my favorites.”
Jolie was also recently rumored to be starring in a new project on Egyptian queen Cleopatra which she describes as something that’ll happen “if we can get the story right and do the real story — there’s a lot her that’s never been covered yet, if we can do something original, we will.”
And, finally, the film adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Scarpetta series that she’s also attached to? “Yeah, that’s just, I think, possibly — writing a script, in development. It’s all very in development.” We’re still not sure how a film about a medical examiner like Scarpetta would work in this environment but if “Salt,” which is apparently tracking surprisingly well, does good business we’re sure Jolie will have her pick of the crop.
If we were a betting man? “Serena” is the only one with a script in place while Woolverton is currently scribing ‘Maleficent’ but Jolie is one of the few actresses in Hollywood who can get even the unlikeliest hard-sell projects made simply by coming on board.