One of the wilder Joaquin Phoenix stories to have emerged recently involved his threatening to leave Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” unless Paul Thomas Anderson was brought in to do rewrites.
In an interview with Total Film, Scott added that Phoenix getting cold feet on the film happened just 10 days before production was set to begin on “Napoleon” Scott had also told Empire that he literally rewrote the entire “Napoleon” script based on Phoenix’s relentless notes.
We weren’t really sure if Scott actually agreed to Phoenix’s demands in hiring PTA to help out with rewrites, but Scott seems to have confirmed just that to the New York Times):
Tommy was doing “Licorice Pizza,” advising me how to do “Napoleon.” It turned into a lot of fun, actually. Three of us in this room screaming with laughter.
So, there you have it, at some point during “Napoleon” pre-production, PTA, Scott and Phoenix were working together on the script and having a grand-ol time with it.
I got the point of the musical scenes – I just didn’t think they added much of anything to the film. I felt like they were extremely distracting given the tone, as well. I may have felt differently without Lady Gaga. I don’t think she pulled off the kind of freneticism that would have made the music work better.