Planning to direct a western.

In July, he’d been more than halfway through shooting “Gladiator 2,” on the island of Malta, when the actors’ strike halted production. But, unlike Napoleon during his exile on Elba, he wasn’t taking salt baths and stewing. He was busy preparing an extended cut of “Napoleon” for Apple, which produced and will stream the film. He’d been editing what he had of “Gladiator 2,” slated for next fall, and “reccing”—reconnoitering—locations for a Western.

After finishing the extended cut of “Napoleon,” he started storyboarding the Western; he showed me pages of Ridleygrams, featuring a snowy fight scene.