Hugh Jackman Nixes Soderbergh’s “Cleo”

Steven Soderbergh has been very vocal about wanting to get Hugh Jackman on board to star as Marc Antony to Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Cleopatra in his rock and roll musical extravaganza Cleo, but it seems Jackman has put the kibosh on those dreams, citing scheduling conflicts. This is a bummer, as Jackman generally has the self-awareness and the Broadway chops to pull off something like this with aplomb, and it has to hurt to have to turn down someone as interestingly varied as Soderbergh.

Here’s a clip from another version of Cleopatra, with Billy Zane in the role that Jackman would have played.

And of course, there’s Elizabeth Taylor’s classic interpretation of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.