Date: 4th September 2000

Kubrick Wrote Napoleonic Epic, Paper Says.


Stanley Kubrick had once planned an un-Kubrick-like three-hour film about Napoleon and had begun negotiations with the former Romanian and Yugoslavian leaders Ceausescu and Tito about using tens of thousands of soldiers in it, according to the London Sunday Times.

The newspaper said that a script of the film appeared briefly on a Web site operated by a Norwegian film enthusiast -- until it was ordered removed by lawyers for Kubrick's estate.

The Sunday Times quoted Kubrick biographer Alexander Walker as saying that Kubrick wrote the film in 1968 and 1969 but saw it go into limbo when MGM withdrew. "It was going to be the crowning of his career," Walker said, "and he was very, very hurt when the financing fell through." The newspaper said that an unnamed U.S. TV company that had expressed interest in producing the film had been turned down by Kubrick's estate.

Source: Studio Briefing