Ridley Scott and period films go together like peanut butter and jelly. The British filmmaker originally got attention for his breakout film “The Duelist” before making his landmark sci-fi horror film “Alien,” which essentially established Scott as one of the more creative filmmakers of his generation as he’s continued to pump out releases on a consistent basis, sometimes multiple films in a single year.

So, it wasn’t that shocking when Scott was interested in exploring the life and downfall of France’s Napoleon Bonaparte. Given that Ridley has always been drawn to dramatizing/fictionalizing historical events with a certain level of flare. Bonaparte was once a subject that captured the interest of legendary director Stanley Kubrick with a never-made project that is expected to be resurrected one day by producer Steven Spielberg.

The film is expected to debut in theaters on November 22, then will be streaming exclusively on Apple TV+, and there is a new blurb in Empire Magazine (via World of Reel) that Scott is keen on Apple releasing a rather long extended cut, four and a half hours to be exact. For some context, the theatrical version we’re expected to get this fall is said to be nearly three hours as it stands currently.

This much longer cut would add more scenes with Vanessa Kirby’s Joséphine and would suggest that Scott is happy with her performance.

‘Napoleon’ is almost three hours long, although Scott has a “fantastic” near four-and-a-half-hour cut, which features more of Joséphine’s life before she meets Napoleon. He’d love Apple (who funded the film) to eventually screen it. But what they have now is hardly slight. “It’s an astonishing story,” Phoenix says of Napoleon’s life. “Hopefully we captured some of the most interesting moments.” Even without the piles.

Of course, this isn’t a new concept from Scott as most of his films have seen “extended versions” released down the line in some form. And a handful of those ended up somewhat superior to their theatrical cuts.

Examples of those include “Blade Runner: The Final Cut” which removes the horrible half-assed original voiceover from Harrison Ford and the extended cut of “Kingdom of Heaven” places the Orlando Bloom film in a better light as well. It’s unclear if Apple or Sony Pictures is actually going to take Scott up on the idea, but I don’t think this is a huge ask of them and it could potentially nudge audiences to watch the film a second time out of curiosity.

After the release of “Napoleon,” Scott will be returning to his love of the Roman epic with a sequel to his Oscar-winning period action film, “Gladiator.” The sequel had been shooting until the strikes paused production and there is an assumption it would only resume once those contracts have been resolved.

Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar®-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.

SOURCE: EMPIRE MAGAZINE