"Stanley Kubricks Napoleon green lit" Topic

according to a snippet i read yesterday Stanley Kubricks Napoleon has been green lit…with Amblin pictures involved..remains to be seen if this is not just wishfull thinking..and according to the quote will come out after the Ridley Scott as he calls it a "monster" movie!

HBO is preparing a miniseries based on Stanley Kubrick's research for a film dubbed his "greatest never made film" — a planned story on French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's 19th century struggle to bring Europe under his total control. True Detective Emmy winner Cary Fukunaga is in talks to direct the mini, which is in development at the premium cable network.

(Steven) Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey will exec produce the project via their Amblin Television banne

update above!

Let's just hope that Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" doesn't tank and then torpedo the Kubrick project, repeating the history of Bondurchuk's "Waterloo" tanking and leading to the studio canceling Kubrick's movie when he was alive.

Clibinarium

there has been next to nothing on Napoleon
in recent years..i have a hunch they will do
well..probably the two best Historical if theres
such a word in Hollywood..so fingers crossed!

Absolutely. My worry is that even something well-made can fail. Scott's "The last Duel" is considered a commercial failure even though it is apparently quite good (haven't seen it myself yet).
There's the two Napoleon projects, a Last of the Mohicans series (at FX I think) and a remake of Clavell's "Shogun". Regardless of whether they'll be good or not I expect at least one of those four to stumble during production and not be made.
Of course if they come out, are well done, but nobody watches them, we'll still have them which is really what we want, sucess or not.

TMP MINI POLL

Cast suggestions to play the Corsican Devil,

Daniel Radcliffe
Aiden Ehrenreich
Lambert Wilson
Peter Dinklage
Alfie Allen
Daniel Portman
Tom Felton

David Tennant
Ricky Gervais
Idris Elba
Dame Judi Dench…

Clibinarium I hear you:

Hollywood is turning back to historical epics, since mostly leaving them (Mohicans, Gladiator, etc…) for 20 years. If "Last Duel" failed it may damper all the talk about future historical releases.

Cerdic. Too funny, but you forgot Lupita Nyong'o. This IS a Hollywood movie after all.

Maisie Williams

Let me know if either one is ever filmed and released--but not until someone actually familiar with the period has seen it.

These are, sadly, not the people you'd want in charge. They might have been once, but once you'd have wanted DeMille, John Ford or even D W Griffith. It's been 20 years since Gladiator, and as far as I'm concerned, Kubrick was already dead when he filmed Barry Lyndon. (Yes, you've all seen the battle sequences. But long ago on a very bad date, I sat through the whole movie. Don't. Just don't. "When directors die, they become cameramen.")

That's before even considering modern Hollywood.

My guess: neither film ever happens. If they do, look for some very nice battle sequences, which I will watch on YouTube. The odds against a movie which could explain why we're still arguing about him 200 years later are insurmountable. A great author might write a suitable book, but movie-making is folk art: too many people have a say, and often the wrong ones.

Gladiator, good film but bad history.
Gods & Generals, bad film but ok history.

It's a lose lose frankly. The best historical biopics of recent memory, like Lincoln, succeed when they focus on a moment in the subjects lives and not attempt to tell the entire history of the subject, cherry picking that moment though is the challenge. If you were to take this approach to Napoleon, what moment do you choose?

Modern Hollywood pitch meeting:

"As long as there is diversity I am in."
"I need to see multicultural actors in all the roles."
"At least 12 of them should be tran/bi/pan-sexual and mention it several times – so the target audience is really represented."
"Picture the Old Guard, with kick-ass 100 lb women ninjas beating up stupid white men soldiers."
"For the final act, let's get all the heroes to pose for 15 seconds before charging headlong into each other and become static 1-1 fights. Infantry, cavalry all together!"

I hope this gets made. As long as they don't F it up.

McWong:

Few historical epics have 'hit the mark' of decent accuracy. Heck, Last of the Mohicans was a romantic novel, as was Ben Hur. No real history there.

For me, it is more about getting people interested in the genre.

At the hobby shop this weekend the young players were watching the new Star Wars series while painting or playing Star Wars/sci fi games. My generation grew up on Sand and Sandal epics such as Ben Hur or movies like Patton. We played historical games.

It may not start a trend, but may direct some interest.

When the movie comes out I will buy the hat ;-))

Good point Dan. Funnily enough I often overlook the Alexander movie from Oliver Stone. Felt that really captured phalanx warfare, some rip snorter sequences. Colin Farrell didn't quite grab me though.

McWong73

If they'd cast Kevin Spacey, he'd have grabbed you.

Sorry, the devil made me do it.

I have the Taschen book on Kubrick's project. It is a behemoth! As you'd expect of a perfectionist, he took the research seriously and was in touch with academics.

link

I'll watch it if they have Denzel Washington as Napoleon. He can play any part, it's acting.

Two Napoleonic movies? Is this foe real? Perhaps there is a trend for public interest in a period we have always loved and known to be fascinating. But lets be realistic and wait until they are actually produced and viewed. As already suggested above, period films can go either way – entertaining but bad in historical accuracy or historically accurate but not entertaining. Will we get two perfect period films?

Gazzola, don't look for perfection. Partly it's subjective, but even setting that aside, how many perfect wargames have you fought? How many perfect rules and scenarios are there?

If someone produces a movie worth seeing on the big screen, and which you'd like to watch again in a few years, the people in charge have done all we can reasonably ask, and more than we sometimes get. (How many can you think of which are bad history without being entertaining? But you don't mention that possibility.)

robert piepenbrink

Hey, I enjoyed watching Sharpe! LOL

I did actually mention 'perfection' with tongue in cheek. In reality, I would never expect perfection. Nor would I expect any period film to be both entertaining and accurate or accurate and not entertaining or entertaining and not accurate.

And I prefer to ignore any reviews of period films, dramas or TV series and prefer to just watch them and make my own mind up.

I'm just happy there are two Napoleonic period films forthcoming. When was the last time we enjoyed that luxury?

As a film, the most interesting part of Napoleons life would probably be about his rise: starting at Military school, a whiff of grapeshot in the Tuileries, through Toulon & Josephine. That would pretty much tell you all you need to know about what kind of man he was.

I think a film about Napoleon's whole life would be too shallow and boring, as it wouldn't have time to tell us much about the man. It's personality and characterisation that makes for good historical biographical films. If you want 'history' you are better off making a documentary series.

However it is made, it's not going to be a wargamers film, I bet you – and, as a cinematic film, be all the better for that.

olicana

It would be ideal if they made several films, each one covering certain periods and campaigns. But people change as they grow older and via whatever life experiences they encounter along the way. One film covering a certain period, such as his childhood, would probably only tell us about the man and his aims at that particular time. However, I agree with you that people should see these as period films, not period documentaries. Hopefully, we will enjoy them whatever way they turn out.

i am sure Ridley Scott can do a good Napoleonic film, whether its a box office success is another thing, – i dont think historical epics can ever be big box officie successes anymore

the move going audience is zombiefied and just goes with that tat that Disney and their star wars/marvel ownership craps out