Apple TV surprised many today by releasing Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon: The Director’s Cut” on their platform. A trailer has also been unveiled.
As previously reported, the official runtime is 3 hours 24 minutes. That’s 48 minutes of extra footage. A far cry from Scott’s original intention to have a 4.5 hour cut of the film made available. We’ll still take it.
In the September 2023 issue of Empire Magazine, Scott revealed that he had a “fantastic” cut of the movie that ran nearly 4.5 hours. This got people all excited because, if you’ve seen the film, and I did find it to be a good enough effort, it did feel like backstories and plot lines were missing.
It should be noted that, in the aughts, Scott had also added 48 minutes to his “Kingdom of Heaven” director’s cut, and that vastly improved the film. Here’s hoping the same boost in quality happens with “Napoleon: The Director’s Cut.”