EXCLUSIVE: Ridley Scott will team with Joaquin Phoenix for Kitbag, with the Oscar-winning Joker star to play French military leader and emperor Napoleon. Pic is set at 20th Century Studios, where Scott Free has its deal. This comes as Scott today wraps production on The Last Duel in Ireland for 20th. Scott has screenwriter David Scarpa –, who wrote the Scott-directed All the Money in the World — working on a script for the Napoleon epic. The film will be produced by Scott and Kevin Walsh for Scott Free.

The film’s title is derived from the saying “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag. The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.

While most are hunkered down due to the pandemic, Scott is moving like a locomotive. The filmmaker is set to start production in Italy next March on Gucci, the MGM drama that will star Lady Gaga as the murderess Patrizia Reggiani alongside a killer cast including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Adam Driver and Jared Leto.

He plans for Kitbag to follow.

The Last Duel, with script by Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, wraps today for 20th Century Studios, after shooting resumed in Europe following a hiatus when the coronavirus pandemic shut down everything. Pic reengaged with strict protocols and is now done. Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Affleck star in the period drama chronicling one of France’s last legally sanctioned duels, when King Charles VI (Affleck) which declared that Knight Jean de Carrouges (Damon) settle his dispute with his squire Jacques LeGris (Driver) over a claim of sexual assault by the knight’s wife (Comer) in 1386. Pic is based on the book by Eric Jager.

Scott and Phoenix are repped by WME, Scarpa by Gersh.

EXCLUSIVE: Apple Studios has committed to finance and produce Kitbag, the Napoleon Bonaparte epic that Ridley Scott will direct, with Oscar-winning Joker star Joaquin Phoenix playing the French emperor and military leader. Production will begin in early 2022 in the UK. Scott and Kevin Walsh will produce for Scott Free.

Deadline last October revealed the aspirations of Scott and Phoenix to re-team on this film, which now has a screenplay by David Scarpa. He wrote the Scott-directed Getty kidnap drama All The Money in the World. Scott Free’s deal with 20th Century Studios obliged him to show it there last fall, but it became free and clear towards year end, and a world rights deal closed within the past two weeks at Apple Studios, where Scott Free has its first look deal for television projects.

“Napoleon is a man I’ve always been fascinated by,” Scott told Deadline. “He came out of nowhere to rule everything — but all the while he was waging a romantic war with his adulterous wife Josephine. He conquered the world to try to win her love, and when he couldn’t, he conquered it to destroy her, and destroyed himself in the process.”

While Scott has long wanted to make a Napoleon film — and other great filmmakers like the late Stanley Kubrick also tried but did not succeed — key for Scott was having the right actor to capture the complexities of a character who brought a whole country to heel and used that power for his own conquering ambitions. Scott saw Phoenix’s ability to do something close to that when he directed him in the role of Roman leader Commodus in the 2000 Best Picture winning drama Gladiator.

“No actor could ever embody Napoleon like Joaquin,” Scott said. “He created one of movie history’s most complex Emperors in Gladiator, and we’ll create another with his Napoleon. It’s a brilliant script written by David Scarpa, and today there’s no better partner than Apple to bring a story like this to a global audience.”

The film’s title is derived from the saying “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag.” The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.

EXCLUSIVE: After blowing him away with her upcoming performance in The Last Duel, Ridley Scott is moving fast to work with Killing Eve star Jodie Comer again and looks to have found that next project to team up on. Sources tell Deadline that Comer is Scott’s choice to play Napoleon Bonaparte’s beloved Josephine in Apple Studios’ upcoming epic Kitbag. Insiders add that it is early talks in dealmaking process but given this is Scott’s choice all signs point to it coming it together. Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in the Bonaparte role, with Scott planning to direct after he finishes the MGM crime thriller House of Gucci starring Lady Gaga.

Sources tell Deadline that even though Comer’s star had been on the rise following her Emmy-winning work on Killing Eve, Scott had no idea who she was when he set her as the female lead opposite Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck in The Last Duel. Insiders say Scott was blown away by her work during production of the film, which wrapped and the end of last year.

Jodie Comer’s reteaming with Ridley Scott will have to wait.

The actress, who is currently on the awards circuit for her work in Scott’s The Last Duel, has dropped out of Kitbag, the filmmaker’s epic drama centered on the French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, which is set up at Apple, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Comer was to have played Josephine opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Bonaparte in a story that is said to track the Frenchman’s rise on the battlefield and in politics, while focusing on the love story between the two.

“Unfortunately, due to COVID and changes of schedule, I don’t think I can make Kitbag work right now due to a scheduling conflict,” the actress told THR’s Scott Feinberg on his Awards Chatter podcast. She wasn’t thrilled about the development, calling it “rubbish.”

The feature is to start shooting in Europe later in January. Comer is due to begin rehearsals for her first West End stage production, Prima Facie, in March, for a limited engagement from April to June.

EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Kirby is Ridley Scott’s choice to play Empress Josephine opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon in Kitbag, the historical drama for Apple that begins production this spring. She will replace Jodie Comer, who exited the project over scheduling. Her reps are negotiating a deal for Kirby, who is coming off an Oscar nomination for her gut-wrenching performance in Pieces of a Woman.

Ridley. Joaquin. Napoleon. In theaters November 22

Directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, “Napoleon” stars Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor and military leader. The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby. The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary. An Apple Studios production in conjunction with Scott Free Productions, “Napoleon” is produced by Scott, Kevin Walsh, Mark Huffam and Phoenix, with Michael Pruss and Aidan Elliott serving as executive producers.