Ridley Scott fans know that anytime the filmmaker helms a new project, two movies inevitably get made: the theatrical version and then the famed director’s cut. His historical epic for Apple TV+, Napoleon, will be no different.
Scott has already admitted to having hours’ worth of footage he hopes to add to an alternate version of the film, one that likely won’t hit the big screen but may still be discoverable on the streaming platform. While the theatrical release clocks in at 158 minutes, Scott told Empire in August that he had a “fantastic” cut waiting in the wings that would run 270 minutes (or four-and-a-half hours). But, thanks to a recent interview with Total Film magazine, we know that runtime isn’t set in stone.
According to Scott, the film’s length is still in flux and where fans might be able to watch his director’s cut is an even bigger question mark at the moment.
“I’m working on it. It was four [hours] 10 [minutes] this morning,” Scott said. “And so what will happen is, we’ll screen [the theatrical cut] first with Sony, and then it has its run, and then the perfect thing is that [the director’s cut] goes to streaming, and we have four hours 10 minutes.”
In earlier interviews, Scott revealed that much of the extra footage focused on Vanessa Kirby’s character, Joséphine, who was the wife of the military mastermind-turned-exiled-tyrant played by Joaquin Phoenix. Those scenes would likely chronicle her life before meeting Napolean, although there’s the possibility that longer battle scenes and more political drama could worm their way into a longer version of Scott’s prestige biopic. Whether both the theatrical and the director’s cut, or just one variant of the story shows up on Apple TV+ hasn’t been decided as of yet, but the film’s November 22nd release, a guaranteed theatrical run means the streaming powers that be have a bit more time to decide.
(via Total Film)