UPDATE [10/10/2023]: During his recent cover story interview with Total Film, director Ridley Scott revealed the version of his forthcoming Napoleon destined for Apple TV+ will have an XXL runtime.
“I’m working on it,” Scott said of the director’s cut.
“It was four [hours] 10 [minutes] this morning. And so what will happen is, we’ll screen [the theatrical cut] first with Sony, and then it has its run, and then the perfect thing is that [the director’s cut] goes to streaming, and we have four hours 10 minutes.”
Original Article — Ridley Scott Keen To Release 4.5-Hour Director’s Cut Of ‘Napoleon’
At just shy of three hours long, the Napoleon runtime promises to be another sprawling historical epic from the one and only Ridley Scott. But would you believe there’s an even longer version of the Joaquin Phoenix-led biopic that the director would prefer to screen? According to Empire (via Collider):
“Napoleon is almost three hours long, although Scott has a ‘fantastic’ near four-and-a-half-hour cut, which features more of Joséphine’s life before she meets Napoleon. He’d love Apple (who funded the film) to eventually screen it. But what they have now is hardly slight.”
“It’s an astonishing story,” Joaquin Phoenix told the entertainment publication.
“Hopefully we captured some of the most interesting moments.”
Anybody intimately familiar with Ridley Scott’s oeuvre will know the Gladiatorfilmmaker has famously been burned by studio-mandated theatrical cuts on two major occasions. So you can understand why he’s so bullish on a heftier runtime for Napoleon.
The first, of course, is the original Blade Runner, which included a half-assed and entirely unnecessary voiceover from Harrison Ford as Deckard Cain. The second was the criminally underrated Kingdom of Heaven featuring an all-star cast of Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Ed Norton, Eva Green, and more.
Scott’s preferred iterations of both films have been universally acknowledged as not just the superior cuts by fans and critics alike, but the definitive versions. Period.
Napoleon (previously titled Kitbag) will obviously follow the exploits of the titular military genius, deeply influential political figure, and Emperor of France. Brought to life by an Academy Award winner in Phoenix, it’ll open with Napoleon’s rise to prominence during the French Revolution (including such seismic events as the Siege of Toulon) before navigating to his famous downfall at the Battle of Waterloo — boots, ballistics, blood, and all.
Joaquin Phoenix isn’t the only collaborator Ridley Scott has reunited with, either. The screenplay has been penned by David Scarpa, who wrote All The Money In The World. Prior to that, you may have encountered Scarpa’s work via Amazon Prime Video‘s hit series, The Man In The High Castle, of which he also served as co-showrunner.
Phoenix and Kirby are joined by Tahar Rahim as Paul Barras, Ben Miles as Caulaincourt, Ludivine Sagnier as Theresa Cabarrus, Matthew Needham as Lucien Bonaparte, Youssef Kerkour as Marshal Davout, Phil Cornwell as Sanson ‘The Bourreay,’ Edouard Philipponnat as Tsar Alexander, and plenty more.
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is scheduled to hit theatres later this year on November 23rd before eventually making its way to Apple TV+ — check out the trailer and official synopsis below:
‘Napoleon’ is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the chequered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix). Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby; initially Jodie Comer), showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.
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