If Cleopatra role comes by, Angelina Jolie may retire from acting

Actress Angelina Jolie is most likely to play Cleopatra in a new adaptation of the Egyptian ruler's life story and has hinted that it could be her last ever film role.
 
She is in line to take on the part of the iconic Egyptian queen in an Eric Roth-scripted movie, reports Contactmusic.com.

"There have been lots of different ideas of directors and a lot of different discussions. The script has been written by Eric Roth, who is a dear friend and a brilliant writer," she confessed during a BBC Radio 5 Live interview.

Jolie has big shoes to fill, since Cleopatra, who was the last active pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, was last played by the late Elizabeth Taylor in the classic 1963 film.

And the 38-year-old star has hinted the challenging role will be her very last before retiring from Hollywood in order to focus on her humanitarian work and direction.

"That's where you finish, in a great way. You kind of go, 'What could you do beyond that one?' Put it all into that one," she said

Meanwhile, Angelina is looking forward to celebrating her 39th birthday tomorrow (04.06.14) with her Brad and their six children, Maddox, 12, Pax, 10, Zahara, nine, Shiloh, seven, and five-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

She said: "Like every mother my wish every birthday is for my children to stay healthy (and) for my family to remain healthy, so I will continue that."

Box office success for 'Maleficent'

Actress Angelina Jolie said Tuesday she was thrilled her latest film "Maleficent", a modern retelling of the life of Sleeping Beauty's arch-nemesis, had debuted at the top of the box office.

"Maleficent" raked in nearly $70 million in North America over the past weekend. The movie not only casts Jolie in the title role as the malevolent fairy but was also produced by the star.

"This type of film is really one you do for the audience. It thrills me that people are enjoying it and it's a success," she told a news conference in Shanghai, where she is promoting the movie before its mainland China opening on June 20.

China had the world's second largest box office at $3.6 billion last year, behind only North America, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. It has attracted a steady stream of Hollywood stars promoting their works.

Jolie said she would welcome the chance to work with a Chinese director, but she hoped her own career would shift away from just acting to working behind the camera.

"In the future, I will be doing less acting and more directing if I'm fortunate enough to have that career," she said. Her directing credits include "In the Land of Blood and Honey" about the Bosnian war.
But the actress said she hoped to play the character Maleficent again and admitted taking home a souvenir of the film -- the curly, black horns from her costume.

Jolie was accompanied by her partner, the actor Brad Pitt, and three children on her first visit to China, where they visited a contemporary art museum and her children learnt to make Chinese "dim sum" pastry and dumplings.

Pitt was punched in the face by an intruder last week while signing autographs at the Hollywood premiere of "Maleficent". He did not appear at the Shanghai news conference.

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