As to Salt 2, her rejection of Kurt Wimmer's script doesn't come as a surprise as I've never thought highly of his scripts. They can be entertaining and he occasionally has novel ideas but on the whole they're largely B-move fare with little depth or complexity.
Comingsoon.net earlier talked to Salt producer Lorenzo diBonaventura about the status of the sequel and he said they were still working on the script. But what struck me was that he brought up how the new Bourne Legacy was made without Jason Bourne and Matt Damon. It seemed an odd thing to mention and I suspected at that time that he may have inadvertently revealed that Angelina was balking about returning. As Katey Rich said, with everything she has on her plate, they need to work quickly or she may never find the time to do it. They need a very good story and script and I don't believe Wimmer is up to the task. Sony will have to recruit better scriptwriters and are likely already scrambling to do so.
What this obviously means is that Salt 2 could be delayed, although with a targeted Summer 2014 release there is plenty of time to come up with an acceptable script. At any rate, it potentially clears the way for her to do Luc Besson's sci-fi thriller without being concerned about spacing apart two action films.
So it could be Maleficent April to July, Besson's or Cleopatra Sept. to Dec. If she does Besson's, Cleopatra could start early next year. The key here is David Fincher's availability. If Fincher is ready to get going with Cleopatra by Fall, it will definitely bump aside all other films.
