Cary Fukunaga (director of True Detective S1) will bring to life Stanley Kubrick's never made magnum - Polidicks

[img]http://www.popoptiq.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/N-6.jpg[/img] [quote] HBO is preparing a miniseries based on Stanley Kubrick's research for a film dubbed his "greatest never made film" — a planned story on French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's 19th century struggle to bring Europe under his total control. True Detective Emmy winner Cary Fukunaga is in talks to direct the mini, which is in development at the premium cable network. Kubrick's family, Christine and Jan Harlan, let HBO have access to the director's archives, which includes his work-in-progress original script and notes. Three years ago Steven Spielberg expressed interest in creating the drama, now he, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey will serve as executive producers of the project via their Amblin Television banner. The miniseries will be a co-production between HBO and MGM. [b] Kubrick worked on the film in the '60s, researching, writing a script and creating a database of more than 17,000 photographs of various Napoleon-era artifacts. But plans for the project were put to the side. [/b] [/quote] [Source: [url=www.indiewire.com/article/cary-fukunaga-in-talks-direct-stanley-kubrick-napoleon-project-hbo-20160520]IndieWire[/url]]

[quote]But plans for the project were put to the side.[/quote] I'd read about this a loooong time ago, and I'm so happy they're finally doing it. The only reason Kubrick never went ahead with this film was because Sergei Bondarchuk's Waterloo with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer failed to turn a profit, despite it being a fucking awesome movie that used thousands of Soviet troops dressed in authentic costumes as extras and good-old Communist workmanship to basically recreate the historic battlefield (in Belgium) in the middle of the Ukraine. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcTTVbJgnn0[/media] Watch it if you haven't. It's worth it.

[QUOTE=Govna;50360668]I'd read about this a loooong time ago, and I'm so happy they're finally doing it. The only reason Kubrick never went ahead with this film was because Sergei Bondarchuk's Waterloo with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer failed to turn a profit, despite it being a fucking awesome movie that used thousands of Soviet troops dressed in authentic costumes as extras and good-old Communist workmanship to basically recreate the historic battlefield (in Belgium) in the middle of the Ukraine.[/QUOTE] Spartacus (also Kubrick) used thousands of Spanish soldiers as extras in a big fight scene it had. But reminder that Kubrick wanted to use cheap, untrainted extras and wanted to shoot the whole thing on a sound stage (rather than outdoors where it ended up being shot). Maybe he would've learned from that when doing Napoleon, or maybe he would've pushed for a sound stage again.

[QUOTE=thrawn2787;50360797]But reminder that Kubrick wanted to use cheap, untrainted extras and wanted to shoot the whole thing on a sound stage (rather than outdoors where it ended up being shot). Maybe he would've learned from that when doing Napoleon, or maybe he would've pushed for a sound stage again.[/QUOTE] That's how it was done in the 60s, period. I'm surprised he didn't return to that project later in his life.

[QUOTE=Oicani Gonzales;50361011]How can something be a magnum opus if it was never made? Am I misunderstanding what a magnum opus is?[/QUOTE] I'd take this in more of a "biggest film" rather than referring to it in a quality sense. Jodorowsky's Dune to this day is argued as his magnum opus that never was due to the insane amount of conceptualizing, casting and scale. A lot of people close to the production or people who have read Jodorowsky's Dune bible have said it probably would have revolutionized Sci-fi just for its scale alone. Films that took various aspects from the failed production (Alien, Star Wars) did go on to revolutionize sci-fi I imagine Kubrick's Napoleon could have been what Ran was to Akira Kurosawa purely down to the scale and pre-planning.

[QUOTE=Oicani Gonzales;50361011]How can something be a magnum opus if it was never made? Am I misunderstanding what a magnum opus is?[/QUOTE] Kubrick did everything except actually make it, including finishing a screenplay for it. I think they're referring to it as such because he had serious intentions on making it, he had a lot of momentum going, and he got a long way, but it just never materialized into a film. Even so, that doesn't negate all the work he put into doing research, scouting locations, writing and planning, etc. [quote]He conducted research, read books about the French emperor, and wrote a preliminary screenplay which has since become available on the internet. With the help of assistants, he meticulously created a card catalog of the places and deeds of Napoleon's inner circle during its operative years. Kubrick scouted locations, planning to film large portions of the film on location in France, in addition to the use of United Kingdom studios. The director was also going to film the battle scenes in Romania and had enlisted the support of the Romanian army; senior army officers had committed 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 cavalrymen to Kubrick's film for the paper costume battle scenes. In a conversation with the British Film Institute, Kubrick's brother-in-law Jan Harlan stated that, at the time, the film was ready to enter the production stage and David Hemmings was Kubrick's favored choice to play the character of Napoleon, while Audrey Hepburn was his preference for the role of Josephine. Although Jack Nicholson was cast in the role. In notes that Kubrick wrote to his financial backers, preserved in the book The Kubrick Archives, Kubrick expresses uncertainty in regard to the progress of the Napoleon film and the final product; however, he also states that he expected to create "the best movie ever made." Napoleon was eventually canceled due to the prohibitive cost of location filming, the Western release of Sergei Bondarchuk's epic film version of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace (1968), and the commercial failure of Bondarchuk's Napoleon-themed film Waterloo (1970). A significant portion of Kubrick's historical research would influence Barry Lyndon (1975), the storyline of which ends in 1789, approximately fifteen years prior to the commencement of the Napoleonic Wars.[/quote] [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick's_unrealized_projects#Napoleon[/url] Had he gone through with it, it probably would indeed have been "the best film ever made".

[QUOTE=Govna;50361057]Had he gone through with it, it probably would indeed have been "the best film ever made".[/QUOTE] Second best. I'm keen to believe that if it weren't for his early death, Sergio Leone's 'Leningrad: The 900 Days' would have been even grander in its scale, more epic and knowing Leone - better directed. [quote][b]Opening scene:[/b] It would have made history, as he planned a single long shot (15 minutes or so), with the camera travelling from the inside of a window (with somebody playing the piano) to the city of Leningrad, showing the besieged city (people lining up for food, drunks, killings etc) and travelling to the outskirts, where the camera would show 1.000 german panzers (yes, one thousand!), until you hear a german commander ordering: "Feuer!". With the first cannon shot, the opening credits would start with "A Sergio Leone Film". It would have been the most expensive single shot in cinema history. Music would have been by Morricone, the cast would have included Bob De Niro and Mickey Rourke, who spent two months with Leone before he died.[/quote]

[QUOTE=spekter;50361051]I'd take this in more of a "biggest film" rather than referring to it in a quality sense. Jodorowsky's Dune to this day is argued as his magnum opus that never was due to the insane amount of conceptualizing, casting and scale. A lot of people close to the production or people who have read Jodorowsky's Dune bible have said it probably would have revolutionized Sci-fi just for its scale alone. Films that took various aspects from the failed production (Alien, Star Wars) did go on to revolutionize sci-fi I imagine Kubrick's Napoleon could have been what Ran was to Akira Kurosawa purely down to the scale and pre-planning.[/QUOTE] Even since "The Day The Clown Cried" got a release date, Jodorowsky's Dune became the film that never got released that i wanted to see. He's still got the tome sized book detailing exactly what he wanted.

Shame about Spielberg dropping. Still... Fukunaga is godly so i'm not too upset.

[QUOTE=GrizzlyBear;50363161]Shame about Spielberg dropping. Still... Fukunaga is godly so i'm not too upset.[/QUOTE] I dunno i'm actually starting to feel Spielbergs started to go a little past his sell by date lately.

Hes pretty hit and miss