Sir Sean Connery to play Cyrus the Great? With Angelina Jolie as his empress?

According to ComingSoon.net, the Sultan of Brunei is believed to be one of a group of wealthy investors planning the most expensive independent film made in Britain. The 50 million GBP film, Cyrus, is being financed by a new London-based company called Chayaha.

The screenplay is based on the extraordinary life of Cyrus the Great, who lived from 580-529 BC and founded the first Achaemenian empire in Persia.

He was a notable warrior but his fame rests upon his decisions to free all slaves in the empire, to tolerate all religions, to allow exiled Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and to order his governors to treat the people as if they were their children.

No star roles have been cast but Sean Connery is being courted to play Cyrus and Angelina Jolie to be his empress.

Chayaha had hoped to begin filming next month but it is understood that despite the A-class list of investors, only around 80 per cent of the finance is in place.

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