Columbia Pictures has bought the rights to a new take on the classic drama, Cleopatra.

Stacy Schiff is writing a book about the Egyptian queen, but makes it clear she intends to dispel the movie myths that focused on pageantry and Cleopatra's skills as a seductress, reports Variety. It will present her as a firm ruler and military tactician who embarked on a ruthless rise to power. Cleopatra twice married brothers, killing each of them as well as a sister; romantic alliances with the much-older Roman honchos Julius Caesar and Marc Antony helped her solidify power, but her dalliance with Antony undid both of them.

The book on the life of Cleopatra will be completed by Schiff in time for a film production start in 2009.