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Napoleon (2023)
Trailer just came out. This looks like the movie of the year for me.
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Me too. Have you seen Waterloo (1970) and/or War And Peace (1966-67)?
Will certainly be going to see this.
There was also the 2002 miniseries starring Christian Clavier as Napoleon.
And of course...
I haven’t!
Haven't seen those, how are they?
I highly recommend! Excellent battle scenes with real people and horses, and the performances aren't bad if you don't mind dubbing. I saw War And Peace, a 7 hour four-parter iirc, in a theater over two days of a weekend at Lincoln Center in NYC. It was life-changing, I would describe some of the camerawork as spiritual. Waterloo is good too, same director I believe.
Look like on Danny Devito..
Of course this movie wil be sponserd by
Now, we have Oppenheimer, then this, Napoleon, and there's another one in the works, Bob Marley.
There are even some talks of having Johnny Depp to play King Louise XV.
I mean, it's really getting big in making biopic films.
I'm now wondering who's next? 😁
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3758542/?ref_=rlm
And 'Killers of the Flower Moon' from Scorsese.
I believe there's also an upcoming biopic on Michael Jackson as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GvL0jFY7u8
Very funny. That made my day!
I wonder how much of the production followed Kubrick's old background notes?
I haven't seen the first one, but I might. I have been watching a bunch of Clavier comedies lately, and I'd like to see how he does in a dramatic role.
The second one is a fictional film within the film Get Shorty, starring Martin Weir (played by Danny DeVito, taking inspiration from Dustin Hoffman). I love J. Thomas Ringo, great fake name.
Yes, the same director, Sergei Bondarchuk, whose daughter, Natalya, stars ever so memorably in the original Solaris from a few years afterwards.
Bondarchuk was a controversial choice as a director for War & Peace, as he was known mainly as a popular, much-beloved actor, which upset more established Soviet filmmakers. It was such a prestige project that Bondarchuk basically had all the resources of the Soviet state to call upon, ie. the museums, the palaces, the Red Army, etc. It basically became a state necessity to outdo the Hollywood version from a few years earlier. So much so that some think it the most expensive movie ever made anywhere, though none of this was reflected in the original production budget. But he acquited himself well as director, even if he was far too old himself to play the character of Pierre in the film.
PS the recent Criterion Blu-ray release has the original Russian dialogue plus a subtitles option ....
The rights to Kubrick's script belong to Spielberg who's still working with HBO on a limited series (he said so early this year). Before he got the No Time to Die gig, Cary Joji Fukunaga was attached as a director, but it looks like he's out of the picture.
It wouldn't be an issue to expand the script, especially as Kubrick was on record saying that he would have loved making an eight-hour version or something like that. An issue would be that Kubrick didn't put on the paper the visual ideas he had in mind for each scene. Kubrick wasn't much into storyboarding (unless it was needed for visual effects) and tended to find inspiration for composing and framing while he was on the set. So, you need to find a director who can translate the script into visual ideas and reconstitute what Kubrick may have done himself without turning into a flashy copycat. Which is not an easy task.
And, of course, after Napoléon was cancelled at MGM, Kubrick used part of his research and his work into Barry Lyndon, which was a major influence on Scott's debut film, The Duellists (an overlooked gem), the one he made just before Alien.
His War And Peace is truly epic filmmaking. Quite the director! I highly recommend, even for its length. Just beautiful war filmmaking and the resources really show up on screen.
Glad to hear another fan of Ridley Scotts 'The Duellists', Marvellous film, I really wish it would get a decent 4k release!
While NAPOLEON (2023) really looks interesting, I’ll be curious to see how a “historical period piece” fairs in today’s film environment.
I’ve read differing reasons as to why Kubrick abandoned his planned version of “Napoleon.” Some say that the relative box-office failure of Dino De Laurentiis’ WATERLOO (1970) killed it. While others attribute much of the blame to the change in top management at MGM. Robert O'Brien – who had strongly supported Kubrick during 2OO1’s production delays and cost overruns – was fired in 1969. Interestingly, Kubrick’s next film – A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) – was distributed by Warner Brothers (as were all of his remaining films).
After the collapse of his Napoléon, Kubrick needed a quick gig to reestablish himself. Warner was the only studio willing to sign him for A Clockwork Orange, as the others bailed out when Kubrick wanted it to be X-rated. But he was, due to the subject and to the rating, on a budget, hence the rushed production (by his then standards) or the reliance on existing locations. And near the end of his life, Kubrick would still bitch about how he had been robbed in his contract, as he only got a few points on the gross. Just like Sean Connery was still mad at Broccoli and Saltzman for not paying him enough or at United Artists for not executing the whole production deal around Diamonds Are Forever (the cancelled Macbeth).
Difference is that Kubrick stayed with Warner Bros as he negotiated better terms for his next projects.
Still, they didn't produce his Napoléon, so it wasn't just some MGM thing.
Anyway, French film director Bertrand Tavernier(*) started his career as a publicist, mostly for American productions, and was supposed to work on the French release of A Clockwork Orange. He resigned after five weeks, as Kubrick was impossible to work with, by sending him a cable stating "As a director you're a genius, but as a boss you're an imbecile."
One or two days later, Tavernier received a cable from Joe Hyams, the global head of PR at Warner Bros. Hyams stated that he was ecstatic about what Tavernier had said about Kubrick, up the point that he had his cable framed in his office, and offered him to pick three projects that Warner was about to release so he could be the publicist, at his own terms, for them in France. (Tavernier mentions The Wild Bunch, but that's probably a mistake, as The Wild Bunch was released in France in 1969, long before A Clockwork Orange was even shot)
(*) I'd strongly recommend Coup de torchon, an adaptation of Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280 relocated to French West Africa in the thirties, which is a terrific choice. It's a dark comedy about a mild-mannered cop that nobody respects there (including his cuckolding wife) and who then starts murdering people.
Looking forward to this too!
Yes. You never see it, do you?
This will set records for being the first film to have ever done it, no question!