Steven Soderbergh's ambitious project Cleo has just lost one of its leading stars, actor and Broadway star Hugh Jackman. The star of the recent box-office flop Australia and the host for the next Academy Awards removed himself from negotiations earlier this week and some news sources are suggesting that is may be because of scheduling conflicts with the Oscars telecast or some other project. The film, a 3-D live action musical about Cleopatra and her relationship with Marc Antony, will cost a reported $30 million to make with musical selections supplied by the indie rock group, Guided by Voices. The film will also reportedly star Catherine Zeta-Jones as Cleopatra and Ray Winstone as Julius Ceasar. Without judging the film before seeing it, it seems more likely to me that Jackman abandoned negotiations because of the film's outrageous nature than anything else. A 3-D musical that blends rock and roll with Cleopatra certainly sounds like a risky venture and Jackman may be searching for a guaranteed success after the damaging Australia. Jackman will, most certainly, strike gold at the box-office later this year with the action film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and then will follow that with the Neil Marshall-directed Drive (which could be the source of the scheduling conflict). The good news for Soderbergh is that, despite his choice actor dropping out of negotiations, he still has more than enough time to recast the role and film Cleo before its release sometime in 2011.
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