Joaquin Phoenix won his Oscar for Joker in 2020, but he earned his first-ever nomination back in 2001 for his performance in Ridley Scott's swords-and-sandals epic, Gladiator. More than 20 years later, the director and the actor are teaming up once more for the historical action drama, Napoleon.
"I am destined for greatness," Phoenix's Napoleon Bonaparte says in the first trailer for the film. Napoleon explores the Emperor's rise and fall both on the battlefield — as he relentlessly pursues power no matter the cost — and behind closed doors, in his relationship with wife Joséphine de Beauharnais (played by Oscar nominee Vanessa Kirby).
Scott, a four-time Oscar nominee for directing Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down, as well as for producing Best Picture nominee The Martian, helms Napoleon from a screenplay by David Scarpa. In 2021, Scott told Deadline, "Napoleon is a man I've always been fascinated by. He came out of nowhere to rule everything… No actor could ever embody Napoleon like Joaquin. He created one of movie history's most complex Emperors in Gladiator, and we'll create another with his Napoleon."
Napoleon opens in theaters on Nov. 22. Watch the trailer below.
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