"Kitbag"
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Apple Studios has committed to finance and produce Kitbag, the Napoleon Bonaparte epic that Ridley Scott will direct, with Oscar-winning Joker star Joaquin Phoenix playing the French emperor and military leader. Production will begin in early 2022 in the UK.
Deadline last October revealed the aspirations of Scott and Phoenix to re-team on this film, which now has a screenplay by David Scarpa. He wrote the Scott-directed Getty kidnap drama All The Money in the World. Scott Free’s deal with 20th Century Studios obliged him to show it there last fall, but it became free and clear towards year end, and a world rights deal closed within the past two weeks at Apple Studios, where Scott Free has its first look deal for television projects.
“Napoleon is a man I’ve always been fascinated by,” Scott told Deadline. “He came out of nowhere to rule everything — but all the while 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.”
While Scott has long wanted to make a Napoleon film — and other great filmmakers like the late Stanley Kubrick also tried but did not succeed — key for Scott was having the right actor to capture the complexities of a character who brought a whole country to heel and used that power for his own conquering ambitions. Scott saw Phoenix’s ability to do something close to that when he directed him in the role of Roman leader Commodus in the 2000 Best Picture winning drama Gladiator.
“No actor could ever embody Napoleon like Joaquin,” Scott said. “He created one of movie history’s most complex Emperors in Gladiator, and we’ll create another with his Napoleon. It’s a brilliant script written by David Scarpa, and today there’s no better partner than Apple to bring a story like this to a global audience.”
The film’s title is derived from the saying “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag.” The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.
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I know his one true born son died without heir, but Napoleon had a number of recognized bastards. Are there any living descendants?
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A side topic related to Napoleon. One of my bucket list places to visit is the island of St. Helena. Quite difficult to get there. Used to be the only way to get there was a 7 day journey by boat from S. Africa. Now (pre COVID) there is a weekly flight from S. Africa as an airport opened just a few years ago.
When I inquired to them about visiting a few years ago, they sent me a really nice set of materials - almost like a "coffee table" book, a DVD, etc. At the time, i guess they did not get too much people interested in coming as tourists. LOL
It is one of the most isolated land places in the world.
