Ray Winstone -- Hollywood's Singing Caesar

In October, Eric D. Snider shared the wildly strange and awesome news that Steven Soderbergh was following uber-long biopics with a rock-singing Cleopatra in three dimensions. Soderbergh had set his sights on two unsurprising leads -- Catherine Zeta Jones and Hugh Jackman (Marc Antony). But that left one major hole to fill -- the sandals of Caesar himself.

According to MTV, that honor will be given to Ray motherfrakking Winstone. The thought of him playing the iconic figure in a rock opera -- it just sounds too good to be true. Anyhow, the filmmaker went on to say that this will be a period piece shot on backlots, and explained his motivations. It seems he was itching to do a rock 'n' roll musical like Tommy, but didn't like the options coming his way so he started researching. Musicals led him to female-driven plots, which led him to female protagonists and figures, and then Cleopatra. Jackpot!

It all sounds wonderful to me, although part of me sort of wishes that he'd hook up with Julie Taymor for this (can you imagine the visuals if he did?!). Best of all -- we shouldn't have to wait an eternity since Soderbergh plans to begin shooting Cleo this April. Are you ready to see Catherine, Hugh, and Ray don retro-wear and sing in 3D?