Following2001: A Space Odyssey, the greatStanley Kubricktried and failed for years to makeNapoleon, a film about the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He wrote a screenplay, scouted locations, wantedJack Nicholsonto be his star, and evenreportedly amassed approximately 50,000 menfrom the Romanian Army to participate in battle scenes. It eventually became one of those “famous films that never was,” but in recent yearsSteven Spielbergannounced his intentionto work with Kubrick’s family and adapt the film into a TV miniseries for HBO based on the screenplay. The filmmakereyedThe Great GatsbyhelmerBaz Luhrmannto direct, but that too never came to be.
Now, it seems there’s still hope for the film nobody got to see.
On Friday, May 13th, De Montfort University in Leicester, England, played host toStanley Kubrick: A Retrospective.Jan Harlan, Kubrick’s brother-in-law and an executive producer on a number of his films, attended the event. Afterwards,Filippo Ulivieri, author ofStanley Kubrick and Me, posted an update on hisTumblrthat stated Harlan revealedNapoleonwill finally come to a screen as a 6-hour HBO miniseries helmed byTrue DetectiveandBeasts of No NationdirectorCary Fukunaga. The post also namedDavid Lelandon script duties.
Kubrick’s longtime assistantTony Frewinspoke withViceabout the intendedNapoleonfilm, saying:
[Kubrick] was always very interested in Julius Caesar, particularly the invasion of Britain, but this ability to be a man of action – an intellectual, a strategist, with political objectives – and how you balanced all this and did what was right. I guessNapoleongrew out of that.
Alison Castlereleased a textbook titleStanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made, which features the original script treatment and essays examining it.
HBO did not immediately respond to Collider’s request for comment, and footage and documentation from the retrospective is hard to come by. So, take this talk of a miniseries with a grain of salt for the moment. But if it’s true … it’s potentially the kind of hit project that HBO desperately needs, and a miniseries might be the perfect way to tell this epic saga. Fukunaga seems like a dream director as well, but does that make it feel all the more like it’s too good to be true? Let us know what you think of the potential project in the comments.
