UPDATED: Jodie Comer packs her kitbag, exits Ridley Scott’s Napoleon biopic, Kitbag
Comer, who starred in Scott’s The Last Duel, blames "rubbish" scheduling issues
Aux News ridley scott
Jodie Comer, who recently presided over Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel in three separate flashbacks, will not be joining the director for his Waterloo. Initially cast in Scott’s Napoleon Bonaparte biopic, Kitbag, Comer has left the project over some “rubbish” schedule changes.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Comer told the publication’s Awards Chatter podcast that “due to COVID and changes of schedule,” she would be unable to “make Kitbag work right now due to a scheduling conflict.” Naturally, Comer isn’t happy about this, referring to the change as “rubbish.”
As for the rest of Kitbag, the Apple-produced movie still has its lead: Joaquin Phoenix, who—and you might want to sit down for this—is playing Napoleon. As for Empress Joséphine, the role Comer is exiting, Deadline reports that Apple is already in “advanced negotiations” with another actor, which we can only hope is Lady Gaga, who was molto bene in Scott’s House Of Gucci last year.
Napoleon movies tend to have a lot of baggage because of Stanley Kubrick’s legendary unfinished biopic. In the mid-10s, Steven Spielberg, who has plenty of experience finishing Kubrick’s movies, announced plans to turn Kubrick’s script into a six-episode TV miniseries. Unfortunately, the news slowly but surely dried up, and the thing never got made.
But is there a filmmaker alive in a better position to direct a historical epic than Scott? Kitbag makes the third period piece directed by Scott in the past few years—five if you count All The Money In The World and Alien: Covenant (but only if you count the future as a time period). Additionally, he says he’s got a Gladiator sequel brewing. What can you say? The guy loves getting costume and production designers award nominations.
Nevertheless, we look forward to the continuation of the Ridley Scott press tour, during which we hope to be told to “go fuck” ourselves by the man himself.
Update: Despite our deepest desires for Lady Gaga to play Napoleon’s wife, it’s simply not in the cards. Shortly after this article was published, Deadline announced that Pieces Of A Woman star Vanessa Kirby would play Empress Joséphine.
67 Comments
I would rather see a Napoleon Dynamite sequel…but this is fine, I guess.
We could do a mashup movie and just send Jon Heder to St. Helena.
First Elba, then St. Helena. “Exiled again! Gosh!”
Do the bleedin’ seabirds have large talons?
“Napoleon, you fat lard! Come get some dinner!”
“It better not be Spam! GUH! I HATE Spam!”
Wait, I thought that’s where he was?
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon Dynamite?
Yeah actually alright I’m in.
Please don’t give them any ideas
jesus christ a 20 years old napoleon dynamite sequel is maybe the worst idea i’ve ever seen. it is bound to happen.
Dang, just watched The Last Duel the other night and she was excellent in it. All the actors modulated their performances for each section, for sure (except maybe Affleck, who was very fun), but her adjustments were quite nuanced and impressive – it was her movie, by the end, which I reckon is what they were going for.That was really my first exposure to her, not having seeing Killing Eve – but I know people love it, and I imagine she’s a big part of that.
Killing Eve absolutely would not work without her. She makes characters you should not be able to relate to, relatable
Killing Eve does occasionally veer towards making her victims bad people to help you kind of root for her, but she’s killed enough innocents over the course of three seasons to make her relatability as a character 90% down to her performance.
I’ve been aware of Comer for a while, but hadn’t actually seen her in anything, until my kids convinced me to watch… *urk*… Free Guy.
She played Rey’s mother for a few seconds in the last Star Wars movie.
I saw that in her IMDB list, but didn’t count it because it was essentially a cameo.
Man, your kids are dicks.
I was going to reply “What an awful thing to say about someone’s children!” but then I flipped up to the OP.
Touché, you magnificent bastard.
The first thing I saw her in was a British dramedy called ‘My Mad Fat Diary’, where she was the protagonist’s best friend. She was pretty young there, and playing a teen, but already obviously a talent to watch.
So glad you mentioned this, MMFD is an underrated gem. I love that Sharon Rooney has managed to move onto bigger and better things aswell, they both had a hand in turning what could have been a fairly rote teen-dramedy into a really heartfelt piece.
Rooney’s fantastic, and a particularly good comic actor. I haven’t seen her in anything since, but I’m glad to hear you say she’s gone on to other things.
I really like Comer, so far she has been awesome in everything I have seen her in. She is very versatile. Check out Killing Eve, The Free Guy, and the series The White Princess too. The White Princess is where I first came across her, she’s quite impressive in that.
It’s literally already out that he cast Vanessa Kirby to take her place. Breaking news, granted. But out there all the same.
This must’ve broke just after I published—I’ll update asap. Thanks for the note!
Sorry, I really did jump on it probably right as my Deadline alert went off. You’re a good reporter. Didn’t mean to “show you up.”
I appreciate it, but no apology necessary—I didn’t take you comment as an insult or anything like that. Thanks again!
You mean LIT-trah-lee, don’t you?
Kirby is an upgrade in my opinion. Comer was great in the one season of Killing Eve that I watched, but think she’s pretty forgettable/replaceable in the few other things I’ve seen her in (The Last Duel, Free Guy.)
Kirb Your Enthusiasm!
Cast an age appropriate actor this time.
I don’t normally care about age gaps in movies but Napoleon was six years younger than his wife. So you’d hope they make the age difference at least close enough that they listened to the same ‘classical’ music growing up.
jesus christ, they tried to turn that into casting Napoleon 19 years older than Josephine and landed on 14 with the replacement.
Like, her being older than him was a HUGE part of their dynamic as a married and eventually divorced couple!
Alec Baldwin in Big Boss Baby Napoleon!
How? Josephine would be 259 years old now – not even Betty White could have pulled that off!
It would serve Scott better to maybe make, you know, one good movie rather than this endless barrage of mediocre movies he’s been pushing out for decades.
Ridley Scott seems incapable of that — his movies are either (occasionally) great or usually meh to WTF?
Yeah – at this point, I don’t know what kind of interesting angle Scott can offer to any story, let alone one so epic as Napoleon and Josephine’s grandiose history – romantic and otherwise. Personally, the only Bonaparte biopic I would like to see, is if some young, talented director would take all of Stanley Kubrick’s unused research for his Napoleon movie and put it to good use, but since Scott is making this movie now, that will once again probably never happen – like with Sergey Bondarchuk’s somewhat mediocre ‘Waterloo’ all over again.
The Kubrick research was actually handed down to Cary Joji Fukunaga four or five years ago. He has been in touch with Kubrick’s family. The miniseries (which is currently in development at HBO with Spielberg attached as a producer) was actually mentioned during the interviews for No Time to Die.
Actually?
Actually, as it’s common for such projects to remain buried and unmentioned for years. Daniel Craig had for instance signed to do a limited series based on Jonathan Franzen’s Purity, until it was delayed a couple of times, and unceremoniously cancelled.Also, HBO has somewhat moved on from making historical miniseries. They cancelled in 2019 the sequel to Band of Brothers and The Pacific, produced by the same team (Spielberg, Hanks, Yost…), even if it had been in development for quite a while (2012 or 2013). Masters of the Air ultimately landed at Apple TV+, with the first three episodes being directed by… Cary Joji Fukunaga.So, if Fukunaga agrees to be asked during interviews for No Time to Die, which was a project with huge stakes, about something that’s still on the backburner and will remain so for a couple of years at least, it’s most likely a good sign.
Oh, okay. I probably should’ve added an emoji or meme to point out your apert pedantry, as you repeatedly used ‘actually’, whilst talking about something that has not happened yet. Sorry, my bad – but do go on.
No problem. English is not my first language anyway.
the last duel is probably his best movie in 30 years.
I find it weird when this site acts like mostly unknown actors like her are big stars that everyone should know.
Why would a Spielberg-backed project not get done? Huh.
Dang. Would’ve loved see them work together on this one.The Last Duel was one of the best of the year.
“But is there a filmmaker alive in a better position to direct a historical epic than Scott?”Er, yes? He’s been on autopilot for what, decades?
No, I’m Napoleon!
I’m Sparta…wait, what?!
You want Room 284, just down the hall.
“Oh, I’m sorry, this is ‘Abuse’!”
“which we can only hope is Lady Gaga”I’m sure her French accent will go down well this time.
The old excuse of “scheduling conflicts” has been joined by “COVID-related” as reasons to delay or drop projects. So why isn’t the fact The Last Duel crashed and burned at the box office a possible consideration as well for Comer pulling out of back-to-back period pieces with the same director whose other 2021 film, House of Gucci underwhelmed as well?
The fact that the same day Comer announces she’s dropping out of Kitbag they have her replacement already signed up is a dead giveaway her exit from the film has been in the works.
Do you think she left cause she hates the title of the film
Rubbish: that’s English-English for horseshit.
I have been wanting a Napoleon movie for years. Joaquin is a natural choice for a petulant emperor. I would’ve accepted Crowe as well.
I would love to see Crowe chased by a horde of relentless rabbits.
“Kitbag?” I do not understand, nor do I like, the title of this movie.
It’s about a bunch of suburban dads who become survivalists. They vow to live in the woods, living off the land and whatever they packed in their “kitbags”.
Updated Update:
She didn’t actually say it was “rubbish”; she said it was “bloody fookin’ naff, guv!”
Alien: Covenant is not a dang period piece. It only works for historical settings, because there needs to be general agreement on the existence and nature of the period.So there.
“But is there a filmmaker alive in a better position to direct a historical epic than Scott?”After The Last Duel, I’d have to say yes…yes, there definitely is someone better out there. The Last Duel was rubbish, Comer was the only bright spot in that movie for me. I couldn’t believe he had the audacity to actually blame the audiences for not liking it; it was a horrible movie.
A Napoleon biopic should be told entirely from the perspective of his Marshals and chiefs of staff, family, courtiers, without Napoleon himself being present at all; Masséna, George III, Josephine, Murat, Talleyrand, narrated from the perspective of a dead Lasalle.Many dollars Hollywood please