Now, if it was me, and I was making a movie of Staton Rabin’s young adult book Betsy and the Emperor, I’d cast Patton Oswalt as Napoleon. In a fucking heartbeat.
The novel (based on real events) sees a child named Betsy befriending Napoleon as he’s exiled to the island of St. Helena after his crushing defeat at Waterloo. As the elder Bonaparte is quartered/jailed in Betsy’s family’s guest house, the two form an unlikely bond. I’d love to see Oswalt subversively locked into the more far-fetched aspects of the plot, suggesting they retire to Uncle Touchy’s naked puzzle basement while wearing a triangle hat.
Instead, we might see Al Pacino in the role.
THR reports that the project, once housed at the now bankrupt Yari Film Group, has gone to GC Corp, who have John Curran slated to direct from a script by Brian Edgar. And this makes sense — Pacino has always had a thing for Napoleon, and you don’t raise money for a historical feature casting Oswalt. Not yet.