Joaquin Phoenix To Star As Napoleon Bonaparte In Ridley Scott’s ‘Kitbag’

Joaquin Phoenix is putting aside the clown mask for now and putting on the crown of one of history’s most controversial figures, the French military leader and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Phoenix will be playing the part in director Ridley Scott’s upcoming biopic of the 19th-century French emperor, Kitbag. The pair worked together before in 2000’s Gladiator wherein Phoenix, coincidentally, also played another emperor – the Roman leader Commodus.

The film’s title comes from the saying, “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag.” It will delve deep into Napoleon’s origins and will follow his swift, ruthless ascent from a military man to the emperor. It will also feature his troubled and often volatile relationship with his one true love, his wife Josephine. According to Deadline, the film’s primary aim is to capture the emperor’s relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as proven by his famous battles and generally agreed on extraordinary military talents.

Scott acquired the help of All the Money in the World writer David Scarpa to pen the script for Kitbag. It is set at Disney’s 20th Century Studios. And Scott will be producing and directing through his Scott Free production company alongside Kevin Walsh.

Phoenix won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA award in the best performance by an actor and best leading actor categories this year for his performance in 2019’s Joker. He also received Academy Award nominations for his work on The Master, Walk the Line, and Gladiator. Phoenix can next be seen on Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon and it is rumored that he will be returning as Arthur Fleck for a next Joker film.

Scott, on the other hand, has just completed production for the historical drama-thriller film The Last Duel starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer, and Adam Driver. The film is based on the Eric Jager novel The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France. It chronicles one of the last legally sanctioned duels in France where King Charles VI (Affleck) declared that a dispute over a knight’s wife’s claims of sexual assault is settled by trial by combat. Damon will be playing Knight Jean de Carrouges who faces off against his squire Jacques LeGris who will be played by Driver. Comer will be playing Carrouges’ wife. The film is another writing collaboration by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with Nicole Holofcener.

Scott is next set to start production next March in Italy for Gucci, a murder tale based on Sarah Gay Forden’s book The House of Gucci. The film is packing on some serious star power with Lady Gaga starring as the murderess and wife of fashion mogul Maurizio Gucci Patrizia Reggiani alongside A-listers Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Adam Driver, and Jared Leto.