Ridley Scott's $220M Napoleon Letdown Is Secretly Good For A Spielberg Project In The Works For 56 Years

Summary The failure of Ridley Scott's Napoleon movie creates an opportunity for Spielberg's TV series to succeed by telling the story in a more comprehensive and detailed manner.

Spielberg's upcoming Napoleon HBO series can correct the narrative shortcomings of Scott's film by exploring crucial elements like Napoleon's ability to connect with the French people and his military genius.

The underperformance of Scott's Napoleon movie serves as a warning for Spielberg's series to fully develop Napoleon's character, motivations, and relevance to engage modern audiences effectively.

Ridley Scott's Napoleon underperformed at the box office and underwhelmed critics, yet the movie's disappointing return could be a blessing for a long-awaited Steven Spielberg project. Despite an impressive cast led by Joaquin Phoenix and vivid period detail that transported the audience to 18th-century France, Napoleon was criticized for its overly simplified story and characterization. Though its financial failure might be off-putting to other filmmakers interested in studying the subject, these failings create an opportunity for other projects to succeed.

Written by Scott's All The Money In The World collaborator David Scarpa, Napoleon encompasses a huge swathe of Bonaparte's life, from the onset of the French Revolution to his death on St Helena in 1821. The movie documents the protagonist's rise to prominence within French politics, weaving his public ascent with his tempestuous private relationship with Joséphine (played by Vanessa Kirby). Despite this ambitious scope, the movie made just $220 million against a reported $200 million budget and received mixed reviews. Nevertheless, the movie's reception simultaneously proved the danger of making a Napoleon movie and highlighted where future projects can succeed.

Spielberg's HBO Series Is The Best Way To Tell Napoleon's Story

An ambitious attempt to bring Stanley Kubrick's abandoned biopic to life, Steven Spielberg's upcoming Napoleon HBO series is the perfect way to build on Ridley Scott's movie's successes and correct its failures. Reportedly in development for the past eight years, the show will use Kubrick's extensive research – originally intended for his own movie – and expand it into a seven-part series on the French emperor's life. Although it's unclear what period the show will focus on, or whether or not it will take a similar, sweeping approach as Scott's movie, the fact that it's in the works at all promises to fix a flaw with all prospective Napoleon films.

As proven time and time again, by movies ranging from Ridley Scott's Napoleon to Abel Gance's near-100-year-old classic, any film is insufficient to fully explore and explain the life of one of history's greatest characters. Gance's movie, for instance, was over five hours long and yet could only chronicle the period before Bonaparte became emperor, proving that no runtime is sufficient to do the story justice. However, by turning Kubrick's Napoleon film into a TV series, Spielberg is finally presenting the emperor's biography in the only feasible format.

Related Napoleon Ending Explained Ridley Scott's Napoleon highlights the titular subject's life. From military campaigns to personal tidbits, we break down the biopic's ending.

So complex was Napoleon's life, ranging from a hard upbringing in Corsica; to his survival in post-Revolutionary France; to his eventual conquest over much of Europe, that his story is impossible to condense into a single movie. As Scott's film proved, any attempt to cram too much history into a feature running time leads to an overlong and stuffed final product, with no room for character development and progression. With a TV series, Spielberg can finally address this issue that has plagued all Napoleon movies, hopefully allowing the incredible true story to flourish.

Spielberg's Napoleon Will Redeem TWO Failed Projects

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Spielberg's seven-part HBO series clearly has the opportunity to fix Ridley Scott's version of Napoleon's story. With an extended runtime, the show can better explain how Napoleon was able to harness popular sentiment to his advantage and secure his standing with the French people – crucial elements missing from Napoleon. The show can also better explore Bonaparte's undeniable military genius, exploring why his tactics were so groundbreaking and why he was so difficult to stop. Fixing these two narrative failings will go a long way towards fully coloring the sketch provided by the 2023 movie.

Beyond just fixing Scott's film, however, Spielberg's Napoleon project will also redeem Stanley Kubrick's lost dream of a comprehensive Napoleon drama. A labor of love for the legendary American director, Kubrick's Napoleon was abandoned following the failure of the 1970 Waterloo movie, whose performance convinced Kubrick that there wasn't an appetite for a Napoleon story. Nevertheless, his obsession with the story and long-running attempt to have his vision realized presents HBO's series with the rare opportunity to answer one of the great "what-ifs" of cinema.

HBO's Napoleon Series Will Prove Where Ridley Scott's Movie Went Wrong

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An unfortunate consequence of Spielberg's Napoleon series is that it will further highlight Ridley Scott's film's shortcomings. Although it's impossible to say how the show might tell its story, the very fact that it will unfold over seven episodes immediately gives it a flexibility that Napoleon never had. Characters will be given time to fully develop and Bonaparte's psychology can be fully explored without simplifying his personality or abilities as a leader. Furthermore, the show will be able to address issues like Napoleon's rushed Egyptian and Russian campaigns, either by ignoring them altogether or delving into them with necessary depth.

Related Napoleon Movie True Story - Real Life History & Wars Behind Ridley Scott's Epic Ridley Scott's grand biopic Napoleon recreates the historic rise and eventual downfall of its titular French military commander and Emperor.

Whatever approach Spielberg's Napoleon show takes, its increased runtime provides the opportunity to fully bring its protagonist's world and mindset to life in a way that Napoleon was always going to find impossible. The history of cinema proves that no movie can successfully tell Napoleon's story in one sitting. By virtue of its format, the upcoming HBO series has a much greater chance of success – providing a sharp contrast with Scott's movie in the process.

Ridley Scott's Napoleon Failure Is A Warning For Spielberg's Series

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The relationship between Ridley Scott's Napoleon and Spielberg's Stanley Kubrick adaptation is not exclusively one-way. Just as Spielberg's show can highlight flaws within the 2023 film, Napoleon also provides a template for Spielberg to follow and potentially avoid. For instance, the movie proved that Napoleon's character is so complex that failing to fully explore his motivations and personality can cause the whole movie to stumble. A major factor in Napoleon's failure was its inability to explain why Bonaparte achieved all that he did. This is a mistake the HBO series cannot repeat.

Likewise, Napoleon's disappointing finances also indicate that there may be truth to Kubrick's original thesis that audiences simply aren't that interested in Bonaparte's story. As a TV show, Spielberg's Napoleon story will not be under the same pressure. However, it is clear that it must make Napoleon's relevance to a modern audience central if it is to prove more resonant than previous projects on the subject. Napoleon's failure give Spielberg the chance to right some wrongs. However, it also means that the pressure to succeed will be even greater than ever.