Apple’s next big cinematic hope is getting a theatrical release ahead of streaming on its Apple TV Plus service. Napoleon, a sweeping epic helmed by legendary director Ridley Scott, will launch exclusively in cinemas on November 22, 2023, in partnership with Sony Pictures, before eventually hitting the streaming platform.
Starring Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as the titular military mastermind, Apple describes the film as “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.”
It’s not the first time Scott and Phoenix have teamed up, with the pair delivering another historical epic in the Russell Crowe-starring Gladiator back in 2000. Could lightning strike twice?
A busy Apple TV Plus year approaches
It seems like Apple certainly has caught the Oscar-winning bug following the 2022 surprise success of CODA, which picked up last year’s Best Picture award. And even during a relatively quiet year it still picked up the 2023 Academy Award for Best Animated Short for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.
This year looks set to be even bigger for the service. The recently-released Tetris, starring Taron Egerton garnered praise; documentary STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie hasn’t left a dry eye in the house among viewers; Ghosted pairs two bankable Hollywood stars in Chris Evans and Ana de Armas for “a high-concept romantic action adventure” while Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon starring legends Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro looks set to also court the awards circuit. If that wasn’t enough, Apple’s also got perhaps the most heavyweight cast of the year lined up for spy thriller Argylle, with Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose and Samuel L. Jackson, and more set to star. Plenty of new additions to add to our best Apple TV Plus movies list, by the looks of things.
In other words, if you’ve not tried out Apple TV Plus yet, this looks like the year to do it, what with Severance season 2 on the way, too.
