The movie, from a children’s book, sounds more hysterical than historical. But with Al Pacino inked to play Napoleon (per The Hollywood Reporter), a mythic, never-made epic comes tantalizingly into view. Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon is the project that most obsessed the late director. He researched Bonaparte for years in the 1970s, built a huge card catalog detailing every day in the emperor’s life and even speaks of Al Pacino in this 1980 interview with Michel Ciment:
It would also be nice to do it as a twenty hour TV series, but there is, as yet, not enough money available in TV to properly budget such a venture. Of course, there is the tremendous problem of the actor to play Napoleon. Al Pacino comes quickly to mind. And there is always the possibility of shooting the twenty episodes in such a way that he would be fifty by the time he got to St. Helena….
Al, I’m joking! I’m joking!
Kubrick’s obsession with Napoleon is a key window into the director’s perfectionistic process. A superexpensive Taschen book exclusively devotes itself to the unmade film; meanwhile, here’s a PDF of Kubrick’s original screenplay, dated September 29, 1969.
Don’t be distracted by Sean Penn’s hair plugs. We’re talking about Al—Al Pacino to you—and his underrated turn in Carlito’s Way. It’s not underrated by Keith Uhlich, who brings critical heat after the jump. 