Previously, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick were linked through their collaboration in 2001 for “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”. Conceived in the 1970s by Stanley, the science fiction film was later passed on to Steven, who wrote and directed the movie.
Another movie that the late Stanley had high hopes for but later ditched in the 1970s is a screenplay about Napoleon. He spent years researching Napoleon in depth for the project. Stanley once mentioned in a 1971 draft letter to studio executives, “It’s impossible to tell you what I’m going to do except to say that I expect to make the best movie ever made”. He had also contacted Oskar Warner and Audrey Hepburn for roles in the film but Audrey told him she wasn’t taking for a while.
Now, Steven confirmed that he is taking on the screenplay and that the script will form the basis of a TV miniseries and not a film, as Stanley had originally intended. Although the Napoleon screenplay is one that is much closer to Stanley’s heart, if Steven’s version of it comes to pass, it will turn out to be something much different from what Stanley had once envisioned.
But hey, it’s Steven Spielberg, after all. And almost everything that he touches turns to gold. Also, we wonder who the “Lincoln” director is going to cast for his version of the Napoleon screenplay. Hmm.
Sources: Slash Film, Rolling Stone.
