Stanley Kubrick 'Napoleon' Screenplay to Become TV Miniseries by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg announced that he is working to turn Stanley Kubrick's screenplay about Napoleon Bonaparte into a television miniseries.
The War Horse director revealed the plan during an interview with French TV network Canal+ released on Sunday.
"I've been developing Stanley Kubrick's screenplay, for a miniseries not for a motion picture, about the life of Napoleon," Spielberg said about the project.
Kubrick originally began development on the script about the former Emperor of France in 1961. The lengthy project was eventually scrapped due to budget constraints and production problems.
The abandoned project left an excessive amount of research on the life of the French military icon behind as well as numerous letters with potential film collaborators.
Copies and extracts of the script are available through the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts in London, according to Cinephlia & Beyond.
Some of the correspondence from Kubrick about the Napoleon project was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibit in October. The pieces that were on display included letters to Austrian actor Oskar Werner and Audrey Hepburn about roles in the film, according to The BBC.
Kubrick passed away in 1999 leaving behind a long list of ground breaking films that include 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and Dr. Strangelove.
The late director was infamous for his obsessive perfectionism over his films.
Spielberg previously collaborated with Kubrick who helped with the concept for the 2001 science-fiction drama A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
His recent film Lincoln was nominated at the Academy Awards this year for Best Picture and Spielberg was up for a Best Director award for his work on the film.
It was also announced on Feb. 28 that Spielberg will head the award jury panel this year at the Cannes Film Festival in France, according to a statement posted on the festival's website.
The 66th Cannes festival will start on May 15 and run through until May 26.
