‘It looks just like a French chateau in a beautiful estate, with hundreds of acres, with sheep and horses grazing and beautiful old oak trees everywhere,’ says Max. A perfect spot, in other words, to film Napoleon’s in March 2022 (not to mention, the 2012 Les Misérables ). Take a tour of Scott’s Napoleon itinerary below Photograph: Sony Pictures Releasing Boughton Manor, Northamptonshireīuilt in the 17th century by the 1st Duke of Montagu, a former ambassador to France, Broughton Manor wears its French influences on its sleeve – especially that of the Palace of Versailles.

‘There is enough ‘neoclassical architecture in England to make it possible,’ says Arthur Max, the film’s production designer, ‘probably because a lot of the design that comes out of France and England is based on Italian classic Palladian architecture.’Ī Covid-era production, staying in the UK had obvious practical benefits, but it also reunited the filmmaker with some favourite old haunts from Gladiator and other past movies. Instead of France, Napoleon was filmed in England and Malta. This time, with bigger battles to stage and a larger chunk of French Imperial history to capture, the legendary filmmaker has kept it local. His 1977 debut film, The Duellists, tackled the same period of Napoleonic France but recreated it in France’s Dordogne region. With his new historical epic, Napoleon, Ridley Scott has gone full circle.

Napoleon animal farm