Ridley Scott returns to the historical action epic genre in this first trailer for his sweeping Napoleonthat reunites the director with his Oscar winner Gladiator Joaquin Phoenix star.
Napoleon is described as capturing “Napoleon Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive and volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the battle sequences most dynamic practices ever filmed. .”
“I’m the first to admit when I make a mistake,” Bonaparte (Phoenix) intones at one point in the trailer, “I just never do.”
The trailer shows multiple battlefield scenes recounting the French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars, eventually becoming Emperor of the French in 1804.
In addition to Phoenix as the original short king, the film also stars Ben Miles, Matthew Needham, Tahar Rahim, Youssef Kerkour, and Phil Cornwell among others.
The project also released a poster with the marketing tagline: “He came from nothing. He conquered it all.”
Hollywood has been eyeing a definite Napoleon biopic for decades. Stanley Kubrick developed a famous project in 1969, but the financial backers withdrew after another project titled waterloo failed. In 2021, Scott said Deadline, “Napoleon is a man who has always fascinated me. He came from nothing to rule everything, but meanwhile he was waging a romantic war with his adulterous wife Josephine. He conquered the world to try to win her love, and when he couldn’t, he conquered it to destroy her and destroyed himself in the process. And he added: “No actor could embody Napoleon like Joaquin. He created one of the most complex emperors in movie history in Gladiatorand we will create another with your Napoleon”.
The original title of the film was, curiously, Kitbagwhich was supposedly based on the obscure expression “There is a general’s baton hidden in every soldier’s backpack”, a reference to how the potential for greatness exists in every fighter.
Napoleon is from Sony Pictures and Apple Original Films. Napoleon opens in theaters on November 22, 2023 by Sony Pictures and will then stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.
