I’ve done a ton of detective work this summer to try and figure out how the movie landscape will look like this fall. However, two major question marks remain: David Fincher’s “The Killer” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon.”
The latter, Scott’s epic, started shooting in February and wrapped production on May 17th in Malta. I know we were told by Apple that it would be a 2023 release, but c’mon …
Scott’s last film, “House of Gucci,” ended filming in May 2021 and was then released in November. There is likely more VFX work to be done on “Napoleon” than on ‘Gucci,’ especially, I presume, war scenes.
Scott will be shooting the “Gladiator” sequel this fall, there is no reason to think that 8 months of post-production isn’t enough to deliver “Napoleon” on time for a December release. We’re not talking about Thelma and Marty here.
I’m having a hard time believing Apple would delay this film to the fall of 2023, they already pushed “Emancipation” to next year. Apple is also set to release Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” maybe a studio campaigning two period epics during the same Oscar season seems a bit too much, but it’s been done plenty of times before.
I emailed Apple earlier this week concerning their release plan for “Napoleon,” but they have yet to answer back.