Hugh Jackman has bowed out of the running for Steven Soderbergh's planned rock musical Cleo, blaming scheduling conflicts for the move.
The wonderfully barmy-sounding project retells the tragedy of Egyptian queen Cleopatra and her Roman lover Marc Antony through the medium of an Elvis-style musical, with music by indie rockers Guided by Voices. We know what you're thinking - cliche!
The other news on the project today is that Ray Winstone is in talks to play Julius Caesar in the film, presumably in flashbacks as ol' JC wasn't around by the time that Marc Antony and Cleo started gettin' it on (unless we're rewriting history, anyway).
Jackman, who has X-Men Origins: Wolverine coming up and is also hosting next year's Oscars, hasn't elaborated on what scheduling conflicts prevent him from taking the role and giving his tonsils a twirl around a full-on musical, but we're guessing it's a jazz retelling of the Romulus and Remus story or something predictable like that.