Ridley Scott prepares extended 'Napoleon' for Apple TV+

Director Ridley Scott is working on a special edition of his and writer David Scarpa's forthcoming "Napoleon," and hopes it will be streamed on Apple TV+.

Scott has said before that he hopes Apple TV+ will screen his director's cut of "Napoleon," and neither he nor Apple have yet confirmed that it will happen. But Scott has now revealed that he is preparing such a version.

When he said this before, he had a cut of the film that ran for four hours and thirty minutes, but now he's got that down a little.

"I'm working on it," he told the Games Radar Total Film site. "It was four [hours] 10 [minutes] this morning."

"And so what will happen is, we'll screen [the theatrical cut] first with Sony," he continued, "and then it has its run, and then the perfect thing is that [the extended cut] goes to streaming, and we have [it down to] four hours 10 minutes."

Ridley Scott's production of "Napoleon" is being distributed theatrically from November 22, 2023, by Columbia Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing. It's then due to be streamed shortly afterwards by Apple TV+.

This version runs for 158 minutes, or just over two and a half hours.

Scott has previously also said that the extended version shows more of Empress Josephine's life. Vanessa Kirby, stars as Josephine, alongside Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon.