Here we go. Now THIS is film news ! People have long known that I have an unequivocal obsessions with Stanley Kubrick's long lost passion project on Napoleon. Hell, the un-filmed screenplay is one of the most popular screenplays downloaded online. It's become the stuff of legend. In the 60's Kubrick was developing a possible film on the life of Napoleon and had already cast Jack Nicholson in the role. The legendary director even said this would be "The greatest movie I've ever made" - which says a lot given that is the same guy that gave us classics such as 2001 A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove. Anyways long story short a film about Napoleon came out before his even began filming and was a complete flop, which had studios scared at the prospect of another one, especially since this one already had a high budget to begin with. The whole project was scrapped and became the stuff of legend. I mean, think about a 3 hour Kubrick epic about one of the most fascinating characters to have ever lived on the face of the earth.
Yesterday's news was a breath of fresh air has it was unveiled that Spielberg will try and tackle Kubrick's screenplay for the small screen as part of a TV Mini Series. This isn't the first time Spielberg tackled a lost Kubrick opus, the other time was in 2001 when he released AI: Artifical Intelligence which was based on an idea Kubrick had developed over three decades. Suffice to say, I believe that film is a masterpiece -some clearly don't- and the thought of Spielberg tackling Kubrick again sounds incredible. Kubrick spent years researching Napolean, going through as many as 18,000 documents and books. The Kubrick family trusts Spielberg and I do too. Of course the contrasting differences between Spielberg and Kubrick are big but hey, is there anyone out there who can mimic Kubrick well enough? Maybe Paul Thomas Anderson. Now that would be something. For now let's just trust Spielberg with this one, his last film -Lincoln- was a very well made historical drama.
http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2013/03/04/speilberg-developing-kubricks-napoleon/