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.

 

Scripted by Scott’s All the Money in the World collaborator David Scarpa, Kitbag explores Bonaparte’s origins and his swift, told through the lens of his addictive and often volatile relationship with the Empress. Scott and Kevin Walsh are producing for Scott Free.

 

Kirby was tapped over the summer to star alongside Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern in The Son—Florian Zeller’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning debut feature, The Father.

 

Kirby will also soon star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the survival thriller Suddenly from A Prophet scribe Thomas Bidegain, and reprise her role as The White Widow in the seventh and eighth installments of the Mission Impossible franchise, to which she was first introduced via 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. For more, read the full Deadline report.

 

Archive: Apple TV News