Joaquin Phoenix Shows Off First Look As Napoleon Bonaparte

Joaquin Phoenix is once again transforming into someone else. But this time, it is not just psychological, it's also literal. Joaquin Phoenix will next be seen in Ridley Scott's new production based on the life story of Napoleon Bonaparte. The first pictures of Joaquin Phoenix as the famous (or infamous) french leader were recently revealed. Joaquin is dressed in traditional french-emperor attire, all blue with golden stripes and a wide bob cut-ish (as per social media) hat.

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Of course, social media is all over it, especially Twitter. Some fans point out that this is the 'hottest' Joaquin has ever looked. This is because Joaquin has a habit of choosing timid and mentally not-in-a-good-place characters that are obviously not mainstream good-looking. Some fans have also loved the way the costume has been designed, as it poses an actual believable look of the military leader.

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Ridley Scott is known to have worked with talented actors in the past. Even Joaquin Phoenix has worked with Ridley Scott in 'Gladiator'. Apart from selecting good actors, Ridley also has the tendency to make them shine on screen. His directorial techniques and his films are always centered around good acting performances that take the film forward, as was the case with 'Gladiator', 'House of Gucci', or 'The Last Duel'.

On the same lines, the new Napoleon film should be caricatured around the performance of the actors. Ridley has already worked with Joaquin and is also familiar with his work on 'Joker', 'The Master', 'You Were Never Really Here', 'C'mon C'mon', or even 'Walk The Line'. While talking to Deadline, Ridley said:

"I think you got to land on a talent. When I chose Joaquin for Gladiator, everybody wondered why. I chose him because of a body of work that was so special and so personal. I also found that he was a very fragile kind of guy at that particular point, and I wanted to capture the fragility which would give me that scene with the father, Richard Harris, saying I’m not going to give you the big job, dude. Sorry about it. He is elegant enough to contain his rage and say, what older, wiser man can do this instead of me? So, it’s almost Shakespearean, and I think, you know, Joaquin can do anything. So, when he then does something like Joker, there are moments in the Joker that I’ve never seen before. There are reactions in the Joker which are silly. You can’t just say they’re not evil. They’re coming from a damaged soul. And that’s what I’m looking for: What will Joaquin’s version of Napoleon be? He will be the painter of his own portrait, and I’ll be there to monitor it as best I can because that’s what I do. I make sure I cast great. If I cast great, half my work, there’s that part, for me is done on the day, and after that I’m tagging along as their partner. Meanwhile, I’ve got a few other things to think about as well, right?'

So, it is no surprise that Joaquin had caught Ridley's eyes pretty early. Ridley also hints about the kind of film he wants to make and how it is different from the old Stanley Kubrick's unproduced biographical film on Napoleon. Ridley's version is more of an intimate portrayal rather than a biography.

'It was birth to death, the entire story of Napoleon Bonaparte. I think what Stanley would’ve done is made the whole thing, birth to death, and then he’d reorganize the whole thing once it was all on cinema.'- Ridely said about Stanley Kubrick's version.

'I don’t care how many uniforms you got. It gets boring. Napoleon had about 61 battles. Bondarchuk tried to do it with one. You can’t tell Napoleon in one either, because we’re meeting him at the end of his life as a leader, and he would go on another six years after Waterloo when he was in prison on Saint Helena. I feel you can’t do Napoleon in one battle. So, I narrowed it down to this. Almost always, the best films are driven by the characters, '- Ridley said while comparing Sergei Bondarchuk's 'Waterloo', Kubrick's 'Napoleon', and his version.

Ridley Scott's 'Napoleon' stars Joaquin Phoenix and Jodie Comer in the lead role. It tells the story and relationship of Napoleon Bonaparte with his wife Josephine. There is no further news yet on the scale and schedule of the production.