Kubrick's 'Napoleon' -- the Greatest Movie Never Made

If you've never heard of Stanley Kubrick's sweeping action biopic "Napoleon," you can be forgiven. The film was never made.

Set to start production 40 years ago on the coattails of "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Napoleon" was to be movie-making on a grand scale. To create his original screenplay, Kubrick conducted two years of exhaustive research in the company of a bevvy of assistants and even a Napoleon expert from Oxford. His plans for filming included epic battle scenes using thousands of extras, and his pre-production efforts extended to some 15,000 location scouting photos and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery.

Sadly, even as Kubrick obsessed and compiled data, two studios, first M.G.M. and then United Artists, backed out of the project, thinking historical epics were falling out of favor. Hence, the film remains The Greatest Movie Never Made.

Luckily for film buffs, however, Taschen publications has just released an all-encompassing book about the film. The sumptuous and hefty volume includes everything Kubrick compiled while planning "Napoleon" including costume studies, script drafts, photos, sketches and Kubrick's letters to friends and advisors regarding the project.

Sadly, the book is limited to a run of 1,000 numbered copies and costs around $600, but still, we have to think this is probably the best ever book we'll never read about a film we'll never see. And in such a crowded category, that's saying something.