Stanley Kubrick intended to follow 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY with a labor of love, NAPOLEON. MGM, stoked about the money and awards 2001 was bringing in, was eager to back it. Researchers were hired and development got underway. But when it was obvious the epic was going to cost a fortune, MGM backed out. It probably didn't help much that a crummy Napoleon movie, WATERLOO with Rod Steiger, came out during that period and bombed.
Kubrick gave this project his usual obsessive amount of meticulous research and planning. In his archives is a huge library related to the subject, and almost every detail from the man's life and times is charted on thousands upon thousands of index cards.
A script (dated September 29, 1969) was found stored in a salt mine near Hutchison, Kansas, where MGM had been hiding stuff for years. It's a fascinating read, outlining a film that would have been truly mammoth. But what I find really interesting is how much of it found its way into Kubrick's later work. The usual Kubrick themes and attitude toward mankind are there. There's even an orgy scene that resembles stuff from EYES WIDE SHUT. And his first choice to play the dictator was Jack Nicholson. Of course, they got to work together on THE SHINING.
Some of the technical hurdles Kubrick took on with BARRY LYNDON -- such as shooting with candlelight -- were originally researched for this film. There was time devoted to paper uniforms for the thousands of troops that would be needed. Location scouting had centered around Yugoslavia and Romania.
When MGM backed out, Kubrick split for Warner Brothers and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971). When that was finished, he resurrected NAPOLEON for a while, but ditched it. Later, he even considered doing it as a miniseries for TV.
