Curran Set for Killer Films’ Betsy Meets Napoleon Project

Looks like Killer Films might once again position themselves in one of those uncomfortable situations where they embark on a project knowing that there is another similar project floating around. Recently I had discussed how they might lose in the first to get the Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg biography out there (their John Krokidas-directed Kill Your Darlings is going up against Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein’s Howl) and now they have set up another fatal scenario – it all depends on whether financiers/producers Adi Cohen and Joseph Grinkorn’s GC Corp. have really been able to acquire “all film and stage adaptation rights” as stated by Variety.

Problem is that Killer Film’s Betsy and the Emperor might be going up against Napoleon and Betsy – a project pegged with a 2010 start date after actress Emma Watson completes the Deathly Hallows part I and II. Watson would play the titular role of Betsy Balcombe. Betsy and the Emperor has actually been in development for close to a decade now, Al Pacino was attached to what would have been a project filmed by Patrice Chereau. Brian Edgar who wrote the original screenplay for Killer Film’s William the Conquerer, has been chosen to write this script, which is based on Staton Rabin’s children’s book and details how the 14-year-old girl meets Napoleon after his exile on the island of St. Helena.

After his marriage drama debut We Don’t Live Here Anymore, the extremely competent director John Curran will have directed what would be his third film in a row to take place in a different epoch (he directed the Asia-set The Painted Veil and is currently putting the final touches on The Beautiful and the Damned).