Napoleon Epic To Apple, Gladiator Reteam Ridley Scott Joaquin Phoenix – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Apple Studios is committed to finance and produce Musette, the epic of Napoleon Bonaparte that Ridley Scott will direct, with Joker star Joaquin Phoenix playing the French emperor and military leader. Production will begin in early 2022 in the UK.

The deadline last October revealed Scott and Phoenix’s aspirations to band together on this film, which now has a screenplay by David Scarpa. He wrote the Getty kidnapping drama directed by Scott All the money in the world. Scott Free’s deal with twentieth-century studios required him to show it there last fall, but it became free and clear towards the end of the year, and a global rights deal came out. was concluded over the past two weeks at Apple Studios, where Scott Free has his first research contract for television projects.

Scott and Kevin Walsh will produce for Scott Free.

“Napoleon is a man who has always fascinated me,” Scott told Deadline. “He came out of nowhere to rule everything – but all the while he was waging a love war with his adulterous wife Josephine. He conquered the world to try to win her love, and when he couldn’t, he conquered her to destroy her, and destroyed himself in the process.

While Scott has long wanted to make a Napoleon movie – and other great filmmakers like the late Stanley Kubrick also tried but failed – the key for Scott was to have the right actor to capture the intricacies of ‘a character who brought an entire country to heel and used that power for his own ambitions of conquest. Scott saw Phoenix’s ability to do something akin to this when he directed him as Roman Chief Commodus in the best picture-winning drama of 2000. Gladiator.

“No actor will ever be able to play Napoleon like Joaquin,” said Scott. “He created one of the most complex emperors in the history of cinema Gladiator, and we’ll create another one with his Napoleon. It’s a brilliant screenplay written by David Scarpa, and today there is no better partner than Apple to present a story like this to a global audience. “

The title of the film is derived from the saying “There is a staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag.” The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his rapid and ruthless rise to the Emperor, seen through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, his relentless ambition and astonishing strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.

This is another big commitment for Apple, which, under the leadership of Apple Worldwide Video, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, is starting to show how their slates will be reflected in the streaming ecosystem. The focus won’t be on volume coming from Netflix or Disney +, but that doesn’t mean Apple won’t rally for a haze cut A set of list movies to spruce up its increasingly creative slates. tasteful for theatrical release and Apple TV +.

the Musette deal is at least on the financial scale of the one Apple Studios struck last fall to acquire the global rights to Emancipation. This film starring Antoine Fuqua directing Will Smith in an action thriller scripted by Willam N. Collage about the heartbreaking escape of Peter, a runaway slave forced to outwit the cold-blooded hunters and ruthless swamps of Louisiana during ‘a tortuous journey north where he joined the Union Army. Apple has also stepped up Doggy style, the World War II drama Tom Hanks wrote and starred for director Aaron Schneider, which premiered last July. And The Flower Moon Killers, the more than $ 180 million adaptation of David Grann’s book written by Eric Roth and which stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Beyond Doggy style, Apple has several films in the hunt for awards, including the film directed by Sofia Coppola On the rocks with Rashida Jones and Bill Murray, the docu Boys state, the animated Wolfwalkers, and the next one Cherry, a heartbreaking drama that is the first film directed by Joe & Anthony Russo after Avengers: Endgame. Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo are the stars.

Despite a pandemic that has held back the progress of many filmmakers, the ever-ambitious Scott has continued to be prolific for the Scott Free banner that Walsh runs for him. Most Recently Wrapped Scott The last duel, with screenplay by Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, for 20th Century Studios. Scott restarted production after the pandemic stopped and ended production in Ireland under strict protocols. Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Affleck star in the period drama recounting one of France’s last legally sanctioned duels, when King Charles VI (Affleck) who declared that knight Jean de Carrouges (Damon) was settling his dispute with his squire Jacques LeGris (Pilot)) following a complaint of sexual assault by the wife of the knight (Comer) in 1386.

In March, Scott begins production in Italy on Gucci, the MGM drama that will star Lady Gaga as murderous Patrizia Reggiani alongside a killer cast including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Adam Driver, Jared Leto and Jeremy Irons. Scott, Giannina Scott and Walsh produce. Musette will follow.

Scott and Phoenix are taken over by WME, Scarpa by Gersh.