Napoleon: Steven Spielberg Plans Large-Scale Series for HBO

A film about the French military general Napoleon has been in the works for several years under the supervision of director Ridley Scott. Lead actor Joaquin Phoenix will portray Napoleon Bonaparte, and the content will be about his rise to power as well as his relationship with Empress Joséphine. As we know since the last Berlin International Film Festival, this will not be the only project that focuses on the life of the general and dictator. As Steven Spielberg revealed on the occasion of the film festival, he has been working on a "Napoleon" series for ten years.

This was originally planned by the late cult director Stanley Kubrick in the 1980s, who had already written a screenplay back then. However, the historical film "Waterloo" flopped at the time, which failed to win over audiences with a similar theme. As a result, Kubrick was unable to find a studio willing to accept his project. Kubrick eventually passed away in 1999 at the age of 71, without ever having produced his "Napoleon" film.

Together with Kubrick's widow Christiane and his brother-in-law Jan Harlan, Spielberg claims to have been working on a "Napoleon" series for over ten years, which will be based on the script originally written for the film. The project is to be produced for HBO and will presumably be directed by Spielberg in an executive role. In the past, Spielberg already handled a different Kubrick project, namely the film "A.I. - Artificial Intelligence".

Further information is not yet available, but it will surely take some time before the seven-part series can be seen on HBO Max. Prior to that, we can expect to see Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" in theaters, which has already been shot, but has not been given a release date yet.