The historic film with Joaquin Phoenix will go through dark rooms before being available on Apple TV+.
Napoleon will invade French cinemas on November 22, 2023 ! As for Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese, which will be released on the big screen a month early via Paramount Pictures on October 18, Apple Original Films has teamed up with a major distributor, this time Sony Pictures, to exploit the historical drama of Ridley Scottwith Joaquin Phoenix in the title role.
After this passage to the cinema, Napoleon will be available on Apple TV+. Which means that in France it will take 17 months to see it streaming on the platform, media chronology requires. Unless the agreement is renegotiated by then… For the occasion, Apple unveiled a first official image from the filmwith Joaquin Phoenix charging saber in the clear.
Directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, Napoleon will recount the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, a young military strategist who would become Emperor and put all of Europe under his belt. This story will be told through the prism of his great love, Josephine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby)but the film also promises to feature some memorable battles.
Apple’s press release does not specify the rest of the cast, but we know that the Frenchie Tahar Rahim will play Paul Barras, a politician who distinguished himself during the French Revolution before becoming very close to Napoleon. He witnessed his marriage to Josephine, who had been his mistress!
The unveiling of this new Apple strategy, which puts movie theaters back at the heart of its business plan (at least for these most prestigious productions), follows an article by Bloomberg, which announced the studio was going to invest more a billion dollars a year in films distributed exclusively and widely in cinemas.
Note that the date of November 22 is announced as a worldwide release for Napoleonwhich means that the feature film, which would have benefited from a budget of 200 million dollars, will be released everywhere on a Wednesday, including in the United States.
According to rumour, the Napoleon the Ridley Scott would have caused a stir at a test screening held last November in Los Angeles, with a Joaquin Phoenix delivering “a performance worthy of Marlon Brando“.
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon already qualified as a “masterpiece” following a test screening
