Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders has been tapped by Warner Bros. to direct the studio’s Napoleon biopic.
The project was written by Jeremy Doner (The Killing) and will take a ‘Scarface-style’ look at the French emperor, who took control of Europe before his defeat at Waterloo during an ill-fated attempt to invade Russia. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Napoleon will be produced by 300’s Gianni Nunnari and Niija Kuykendall will oversee for Warner Bros.
Sanders had directed commercials before turning to features with last year’s Snow White, which starred Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. Of course, he became a household name thanks to his affair with Stewart, which ended his marriage, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting work in Hollywood.
As Deadline notes, Sanders is working with Snow White studio Universal on 90 Church and is also developing Juliet for Sony. He’s also got an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s The Kill List in the works.
As for Warner Bros., the studio has been on a director-hiring spree. Just yesterday, the studio hired Joe Wright for Peter Pan.
Napoleon was the subject of one of the most famous unmade projects in film history - a biopic Stanley Kubrick was working on throughout his life. Steven Spielberg once suggested that it may become a miniseires, but there's been no word on that.
image: Wikimedia Commons
