Joaquin Phoenix had played a tyrant emperor in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, and now the two are teaming up again for Phoenix to play a historical figure, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon is set to release in theaters this thanksgiving season, and we have a new trailer with Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ludivine Sagnier, and Catherine Walker. Watch this:
Here’s the official description for the movie:
Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar®-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.
With Phoenix having played nervous wrecks in movies like Joker and Beau is Afraid, it’s going to be interesting to see him back in a historical biopic playing a ruthless ruler.
Personally, I’m kind of interested to see if the movie is going to delve into the reason history brands Napoleon as short. While he was actually a man of above-average height at the time, it was said that cartoonist James Gillray had portrayed Napoleon to be short in his political cartoons, and the image of a short, temperamental ruler just kind of stuck.
Napoleon is set to hit theaters on Nov. 22.
