“Napoleon” is back on the march.
Ridley Scott’s historical epic from last year, which starred Joaquin Phoenix as the arrogant military-leader-turned-emperor Napoleon, is getting the director’s cut treatment, with 48 minutes of new footage being added to the runtime. It’s available now on Apple TV+. Watch a new trailer below.
What’s interesting is that, when “Napoleon” was released last fall, Scott claimed that there was a superior four-and-a-half hour version, that would eventually see the light of day. The version arriving on Apple TV+ today is a little shy of three-and-a-half hours. Did he get more judicious during the assembly of this new version? Did Apple blanch at paying for more visual effects and score in service of a movie that didn’t move the needle much? While it’s unclear now, Scott is about to embark on the press tour for “Gladiator II” (out this Thanksgiving) and we’re sure somebody will ask him about it.
This version of “Napoleon,” like the earlier version, stars Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Ruper Everett, Ludivine Sagnier and Ben Miles. As was reported earlier this year, the screenplay for “Napoleon” was heavily re-written by Paul Thomas Anderson, in a bid to keep Phoenix in the movie.
It’ll be interesting to see if the director’s cut of “Napoleon” will see calls for a reappraisal, as has happened on earlier Scott films. 48 minutes was about the same amount of time added to “Kingdom of Heaven,” which transformed it from being viewed as an uneven flop to, know, often cited as one of the more ambitious movies in his entire filmography.
The director’s cut of “Napoleon” is on Apple TV+ now.
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