Ridley Scott’s epic ‘Napoleon’ movie will be a Apple TV+ hit

Apple may have another big hit on its hands as Ridley Scott’s in production Apple TV+ movie, Napoleon wowed attendees at the movie industry’s CinemaCon event.

A big movie at an epic scale

Napoleon is an epic movie starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte. It explores Napoleon’s early life and his rise to become a military hero and emperor of France.

“Napoleon” is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine.

“The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary,” Apple has said.

Huge marketing push planned

Apple is working with Sony Pictures to get the movie into theaters, which is why Sony chose to show footage from the movie at its annual CinemaCon event.

The footage, which showed Napoleon lead an attack in a dramatic ambush, drew huge applause from the audience of cinema bosses.

Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman said, “Epic is the only proper description of that Apple Originals film.”

Still in production the plan is to show the film exclusively in cinemas starting in November with TV+ streaming to follow. The movie will be given a huge marketing campaign to support its theatrical release.

Apple goes Hollywood

Apple was recently reported to be planning to spend a billion dollars each year on films that will be shown in cinemas before they are streamed.

The idea is that by showing movies to cinema goers first Apple will also get to promote its streaming service to them. Apple has released movies to cinema before, both “CODA” and “Cherry” saw release for a short period in 2021, but the report suggests bigger scale plans. Apple won a best picture Oscar last year with CODA.

Apple announced earlier this month that Scott’s film will first be released exclusively in theaters across the globe in partnership with Sony on Nov. 22. After its theatrical run, Napoleon will stream globally on Apple TV+.

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