You could argue that every Ridley Scott film is a coin flip, but we’ll always turn up when the Alien and Blade Runner director turns his hand to a sweeping historical epic. And so, we are deathlessly excited that Napoleon is invading New Zealand cinemas on November 23.
We’re onto a good thing here; the last time Scott dealt with the Napoleonic era we got The Duellists. This time out we’re getting the Emperor himself, with Joaquin Phoenix essaying the title role in a film that follows Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power in post-Revolutionary France, promising “a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.”
While exact plot details are being kept under wraps (but, y’know, read a book) it’s clear Scott’s film focuses on the relationship between Napoleon and his first wife, Empress Josephine (played by Vanessa Kirby, replacing original choice Jodie Comer). Tahar Rahim, Ben Miles, Ludivine Sagnier, Matthew Needham, Youssef Kerkour, Phil Cornwell and Ian McNiece round out the sprawling ensemble.
Napoleon is the very definition of an ambitious project, and the prospect of mounting a biopic of the Corsican conqueror has bested plenty of filmmakers before Sir Ridley, most notably Stanley Kubrick, who spent a good decade prepping for a production that ultimately had the plug pulled by a gun-shy MGM at the last minute. The book is worth a look, though.
Can Ridley Scott succeed where Stanley Kubrick failed? That’s the sort of question that can get you glassed at the wrong film festival, but for real: if you’re not excited at the prospect of the Gladiator director getting to play with all the toys in the historical epic box, you might be in the wrong hobby.
