One of the greatest classics of cinematic history is being given a Game of Thrones-style makeover by a Hollywood screenwriter.

David Scarpa has said he would remake the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton film, Cleopatra, as a "tight, dirty, fast two-hour movie, that was very sort of visceral".

Scarpa, who wrote Ridley Scott's awards season favourite All The Money in the World, has been attached to the ill-fated Cleopatra film that various Hollywood power players have been trying to release for several years.

The new film is set to be directed by Denis Villeneuve, who directed 2017's Blade Runner sequel and Arrival, and has previously attracted attention from heavyweight directors David Fincher and Ang Lee. Sony is the studio behind the project, and is thought to have been trying to ape the history-making opulence of the 1963 original, which was so bombastic it nearly put 20th Century Fox into bankruptcy.