Ridley Scott compares making Napoleon to “ridiculously challenging” Legos

We’ve heard of filmmaking being compared to scaling Mt. Everest and going to war, but we’re pretty sure comparing it to building a Lego set is a new one. But that’s just what Ridley Scott has done, saying his upcoming Napoleon has been one “ridiculously challenging” set of pieces. Now, can we get a Battle of Waterloo set pitched on LEGO Ideas?

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Ridley Scott said Napoleon has been one of his most daunting directorial outings, touching on one of the aforementioned similes. “These kinds of films are like climbing a mountain,…At the ground level, the peak looks a long way off. But as you climb up the hill with your partners in this ridiculously challenging LEGO kit of information you’re trying to put together, sometimes pieces don’t fit and you’re already at 20,000 feet.” Still, that’s just part of what he does. “It’s a continual day-by-day process, but that’s why I do it. I love it.” And now we really want to see Scott tackle the 4,400-piece Titanic Lego set.

While the released version of Napoleon runs a little under 2 hours and 40 minutes, Ridley Scott apparently has a director’s cut that runs close to four and a half hours. Knowing Scott’s love for director’s cuts, we’re already anticipating that release…and Napoleon doesn’t even come out until next month. It couldn’t have been easy having to constantly rewrite the script to mold to lead Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, either…

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon offers an “original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby. The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.”

Napoleon Bonaparte has been depicted on the big screen numerous times before, going back to Abel Gance’s 1927 silent film. While Ridley Scott’s Napoleon comes out nearly a century after Gance’s epic, we will still always wonder what Stanley Kubrick would have done with the figure in between…

Napoleon charges to theaters on November 22nd.