Hi folks, Precious Roy here… we brought news of the SHAFT reboot and earlier, news of the SUPER FLY reboot… now comes word that on-fire Misha Green (writer/Exec Producer/co-creator of UNDERGROUND) is set to write and produce an update to the 1973 film, CLEOPATRA JONES.
The original starred Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, and, as they say I the trailer, “two-time Academy Award winner” Shelley Winters (giving me a powerful SWIMMING WITH SHARKS flashback). Like SUPER FLY, CLEOPATRA JONES is very much an anti-drug story, but Jones herself is all hero—calling in an air strike on Mother’s poppy fields whilst strutting like a runway model in a fur, threatening an uncool dude with his own switchblade and returning it broken…
What a fun choice to update! This feels like the John Singleton SHAFT-- the right combination of license and creative talent. I hope all of these blaxploitation updates currently in production are worthy of their lineage. I can’t even imagine the angle Green will take with her update, but I am excited to see who will line up for the roles. No word yet on who is being pursued, but I have little doubt Beyoncé will be in some way approached, as she played Foxxy Cleopatra in AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER, and would have no trouble tying into the soundtrack. I’d love to see someone fierce… and tall, like Dobson was… to take on Cleopatra Jones. Rihanna comes to mind, even at 5’8”.
Read more at Deadline Hollywood, here: http://deadline.com/2017/11/cleopatra-jones-remake-misha-green-warner-bros-tamara-dobson-blaxploitation-1202217423/#
Precious Roy
