Steven Spielberg can’t escape these days – and rightly so! With “The Fabelmans”, probably Spielberg’s most personal film will be released in German cinemas on March 9, 2023 and as part of press work, the master director is currently speaking in many interviews about his past, present and future as a filmmaker. And certainly in Berlin you cannot ignore the Hollywood great at the moment, because Steven Spielberg has just been awarded the honorary golden bear at the Berlinale.
For his life’s work, Spielberg not only received the bear at the film festival, but also a minute-long standing ovation. He thanked him with tears in his eyes and revealed that numerous German directors such as Ernst Lubitsch, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Werner Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders and Tom Tykwer had influenced his work. But Spielberg not only accepted the prize at the Berlinale 2023, but also revealed something about his latest project!
Steven Spielberg wants to bring Stanley Kubrick’s “Napoleon” to life
It is already known that Steven Spielberg is thinking about doing a series. He’s talked about it throughout his career, and more recently, he’s reaffirmed his desire (as well as gushing about a thriller series starring Kate Winslet that he’d like to make). Now his plans are becoming quite concrete, he said during a speech at the Berlinale.
Spielberg has been thinking since 2013 Stanley Kubricks buried film project”Napoleonas a series, and in fact the first steps towards implementation have already been taken. Previously, Cary Joji Fukunaga (“True Detective”) was brought on board to direct. The filmmaker has not revealed if Fukunaga is still involved or exactly how far Spielberg has come in developing the project.
But there is some more information: “Napoleon” will be a seven-part miniseries for HBO. Stanley Kubrick’s wife, German actress Christiane Kubrick (“Paths of Glory”) and her brother, producer Jan Harlan, are teaming up with Spielberg on the series project.
That’s what Kubrick’s “Napoleon” is about
Kubrick’s “Napoleon” project, which ultimately never got off the ground, would be about the revolutionary dictator, French general and emperor of the French: Napoleon Bonaparte. Kubrick planned a gigantic biopic, packed with detail and high historical accuracy, about the world-famous ruler. Kubrick’s work on the project is well documented – an 800-page book summarizing the filmmaker’s research and plans, including information on sets, costumes, character constellations and shooting schedules, as well as a reprint of the screenplay. Spielberg now uses this book in the development of the series.
›› “Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon” from Alison Castle on Amazon*
The gigantic dimensions were probably also the problem in the making of the film at the time. After Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, it would be Napoleon’s turn. But the project would simply have been too large and therefore too expensive. Kubrick planned, among other things, to have 40,000 extras walk across the screen as soldiers, to film in several European countries and to have costumes made with great attention to detail. Leading roles had already been found in Jack Nicholson and Audrey Hepburn. But in the end, the project was scrapped.
How Spielberg intends to transform this gigantic work into a seven-part HBO series is not yet known. But that he has a talent for detailed biopics, you will soon see in the cinema again. How great has his new movie “The Fabelmans” turned out, you can read in our 4.5-star review.