A Hollywood battle is looming over rival plans to tell the story of the friendship between Napoleon Bonaparte and a young British girl.

Lions Gate recently announced that Scarlett Johansson would be starring in its film, Napoleon and Betsy, which is still searching for a male lead.

Meanwhile, Al Pacino has signed up to play Napoleon in the rival film, The Monster of Longwood, an adaptation of a Staton Rabin novel.

Both films tell the story of the French dictator's last days and his relationship with a young British girl who befriended him after he was exiled to the isle of St. Helena.

The Monster of Longwood producer Howard Rosenman has reportedly hired a lawyer to try and halt Napoleon and Betsy.

He claims Napoleon and Betsy scriptwriter Rebecca B. Kennedy wrote the first draft of his Longwood project and that Scarlett Johansson did a reading with Pacino last year.

Source: Press Release