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Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon (Unreleased)
After the success of the Science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick decided his next project would be a Biographical, Historical Drama about the life of the infamous French Emperor and Military Commander, Napoleon Bonaparte. After the release of 2001 in 1968, Kubrick immediately got to work on researching every detail of Napoleon's life. He ended up writing a 148 page script in 1969 and started looking for actors, locations and costumes for the project. Kubrick wanted to do this movie due to Napoleon being "one of those rare men who move history and mould the destiny of their own times and of generations to come". Kubrick dedicated over 2 years worth of his life to completely finding out every little detail about the man. To the point he had a filing cabinet with every day of Napoleon's life in it. You could open up to any day in his life and it would have what he had for breakfast to what his wife Joséphine was wearing. Kubrick was renowned for his obsession but with Napoleon he almost idolised his flawed yet wildly successful life.

Plot
The film was going to follow Napoleon from his birth in Ajaccio, France, 1769, through to his death in 1821 at the age of 51. He spent his final days on a small island off the west coast of the African Continent called Saint Helena in his final residence of Longwood House. The film would also follow Napoleon's rise to Military commander during the French Revolution through to the emperor of France and how his mind worked throughout that time. Kubrick was always making movies with heavy psychological thought and this was to be no different. Another aspect of the film would follow his wife Joséphine Bonaparte who became Empress consort of the French in 1804 and Queen consort of Italy in 1805 until their separation in 1810.

Research
Research began in 1968 when he got his hands on over 200 books and sent researchers all over Europe to follow Napoleon's trail. He began gathering every little detail he could from that era. From the clothes people wore to what piano they played. 2 years of complete and utter obsession surrounded Kubrick's life. He became a collector of artefacts from the time that the Stanley Kubrick archives still have to this day.

Screenplay
Sometime after Kubrick's death the screenplay got released to the public alongside many other unreleased documents from his entire career. The over 140 page script has been read by film and Kubrick enthusiasts all over the world. Although Kubrick never truly stuck to his screenplays and was always tinkering whilst on set. The screenplay is a draft that lays out the events that would be covered in the film.

Design
Instead of building big sets and wasting millions on resources and manpower, Kubrick believed that he would be able to use the buildings and interiors still up in France for the sets and locations. There were many houses and villages that still stood from the Napoleon era in France that would capture the time perfectly. He was able to obtain 50,000 Romanian infantry during principle photography to emulate the might of the French army at the time.

Why It Never Got Made
Lack of funding is the main reason Kubrick's Napoleon movie failed to be made. Even with donations and money from his own pocket, the project was far too ambitious for many producers and financiers at the time. He ended up using all the research on the era of Napoleon for his 1975 film Barry Lyndon that is set in the same time zone with many of the same sets and costumes. Barry Lyndon is almost a warped look into what could have been if Napoleon got the help and funding it needed.

Legacy
The entire saga of Stanley Kubrick's failed Napoleon film leaves many wondering what could have been. There was a book made, the main piece in the Stanley Kubrick archives is all the information, clothing, sets and scripts from the failed project. There is even a letter from Audrey Hepburn kindly rejecting the proposed role of Napoleon's wife Joséphine. There is even a mini series in the works by Steven Spielberg.

Kubrick Archives
The archives opened in 2007, it started in London and has travelled all around showing off many pieces of Kubrick's work donated by his family. The main piece in the archives are all the documents and designs of the Napoleon failed project.

Book
In 2009 a book composed of all Kubrick's research was put together and edited by Alison Castle. The book shows the script Stanley had written and shipped around to studio executives and financers before Kubrick decided to move on from the project and work on Barry Lyndon. It also shows how much information Kubrick gathered even before pre-production.

Steven Spielberg's Upcoming Series
Steven Spielberg worked on a project called Artificial Intelligence with Kubrick before he died. They both revered each other and out of love Spielberg decided to bring the Napoleon script and all the research Kubrick did throughout his whole life to the small screen. The project started in 2023 and was announced by Spielberg to be a 7 part miniseries.