"Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon" Topic

I stumbled upon this description of a canceled Kubrick movie about Napoleon that would have been made in the early seventies. You may want to spare your eyesight and scroll down to the part after the plot summery to the interesting bits about the mass of pre-production research and the paper uniforms.

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The article mentions how in recent years directors such as Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott have been approached about taking up the Kubrick research and unfinished script. I think this could work if it was made as a TV miniseries along the lines of Band of Brothers or John Adams. However, if it were made as a two hour film it would no doubt be some atrocity starring Keanu Reeves as Napoleon with a cameo by Kevin Costner as Wellington.

I would also hope that the battle scenes would not feature huge napalm explosions as seen in Waterloo with Rod Steiger. On the subject of this movie, I watched it again this week for the first time in decades and laughed out loud when sinister music swelled any time the Prussians were shown. I thought they were the 'good guys'?

I would prefer Napalm explosions over Canoe as Boney anytime…

K

Let's see….

Danny Devito as Napoleon.
Uma Thurman as Josephine
Quentin Tarantino as Wellington
Wilford Brimley as Blucher

Yeah, it could work…

But how could they beat Abel Gance's 15 hour epic?

By making a talkie?

Danny Devito as Napoleon! Fantastic!

Now that I would watch…

K

It's Always Sunny in Paris???

Lady Gaga as Alexander of Russia.

no, Marilyn Manson as Alexander of Russia.

Angelina Jolie as Ney("Are you with me, Gia!")

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Blucher("Retreat with me if you want to live!")

Joe Pesci as Napoleon("Do I amuse you?")

Sasha Baron Cohen as Wellington(Fill in)

need more, cant think

Hmm, maybe Lady Gaga could be the Duchess of Richmond, balls and all…

K

My vote for director would be Peter Jackson.
He would be the most passionate and would endeavor for historical accuracy, IMHO.

I doubt there would be much…Wellington would probably be saved by the 101st Airborne from being defeated by the Grande Armee led by Hitler or Osama bin Laden that was bent on exterminating all the Jews of Europe or some such twaddle…

I think it is best left unmade as I can guarantee that Hollywood would never accept it historically.

K

A Nappy* Paths of Glory might have been awesome. A Nappy* LotR or Saving Priavte Ryan not so much.

*sorry

Get Shorty?

Could be worse. Could be a Mel Gibson production where Wellington attempts to seal the victory by sacrificing some Belgian babies to Baal. Meanwhile Blucher sets fire to buildings full of French wounded while under a Jedi mind trick. Finally Napoleon leads the Old Guard forward and impales an Eagle in the skull of Wellington personally. Victory assured he retires to a quaint island in the South Atlantic.

I own a copy of Kubrick's shooting script and have read what might have been. I think the result would have have been shot simular to Barry Lyndon and the story would have been blah. The script seems fixated on his sex life, his archnemisis is water (thirst killing troops in Egypt, British Navy, water making mud at Waterloo, …and he had no understanding of ice and the damage it can do (it has a scene when he is a boy at the military academy and find water in a drinking pitcher frozen and it freaks him out thus making the other students tease and make fun of him)There are references to battle scenes but as a whole the script reads like a sometimes narrated but dramatized documentary. The soundtrack was supposed to be all Beethoven.
* Jack Nicholson was signed to play Bonaparte actually…all he got was a Napoleonic Wargame Hobby from the not to be role. After "The Shining" Nicholson, still deeply wanting to play the role, tried to enlist Kubrick to do another Napoleon film about his last days in exhile but that went nowhere.
* Kubrick after the collapse of his first attempt in the late 60's tried again after he finished "A Clockwork Orange" did enlist the author of the book the movie was based Anthony Burgess to write a book on Napoleon feeling a best selling novel would help raise the money to produce the film. "Napoleon Symphony" was published but was a bomb. The book is an odd 400 page linguistic hard to read post-modern darkly cynical rant structured in four movements like an opera hititng on Kubricks original themes in the first script and adding some political stuff and implying some odd sex things (Napoleon and Tsar Alexander had a gay attraction towards eachother for instance)I like the book personally though must confess it is a darkly twisted version of the history. Copies of "Napoleon Symphony" are tough to find as it has not been reprinted. Years later Anthony Burgess worked on "Quest for Fire" creating the languages the cavemen spoke which he did solicit the director Jean Jauques Annaud to adapt his book since Kubrick had abandoned it since it did not sell. Nothing became of that either.
I personally don't think Ridly Scott or Spielberg could handle adapting the Kubrick Napoleon project, I think Peter Jackson would be the best choice in my opinion. Adapting Napoleon's life is as hard as adapting "Lord of the Rings" if not harder.

Personally, I liked Ian Holm's portrayal of Buonaparte in The Emperor's New Clothes. When my so was young, he would only accept Rod Steiger's version, and cried when he learned Steiger had died – but was consoled when I bought a DVD of Waterloo.

Point about "Barry Lyndon" is well made; equally episodic, and the reliance on Voice-over becomes evident very quickly, but I'd still rather have this "Napoleon" than "2001" and "Clockwork Orange" both.

Do you want to read the screen?

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Loooong, but VERY good and interesting!.

Amicalement
Armand

Been there done that.

TMP link

Ah! That is the very screenplay I have but my printed copy has Kubrick's handwritten notes in the margins. I personally prefer the later "Napoleon Symphony" novel that Anthony Burgess wrote for Kubrick and think a better screenplay could be adapted out of that than the first shooting script. Who knows Burgess and Kubrick are dead and if anything is made out of Kubrick's vision will not be 100% what he had in his head.

If anyone reads the posted script remember try to picture Jack Nicholson playing Napoleon…as he would have if the project had not have collapsed.

Yes…

'Here's Boney!'

K

"You want the Old Guard? You can't handle the Old Guard!"

A musical.

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Blucher("Retreat with me if you want to live!")

Inspired!

"You want the Old Guard? You can't handle the Old Guard!"

"Jack Nicholson IS Napoleon Bonaparte, in a film by Martin Scorcese…"

wow. Peter Jackson to direct. What a great idea Bellephone.
My second choice would be a split bettween Ridly scott or Wolfy Peterson.
For Wellington I'd pick Russel Crowe.
On the other hand I'd prefer a movie on Leipzig.

Or just a movie on Poniatowski at Leipzig.

Sort of a 'Learn to swim' public information film?

K