Napoleon

The miniseries is based on Max Gallo's biography of Napoleon and respects its division into four parts, presenting a more human Napoleon who is sometimes manipulated by those around him rather than the stereotypical image of the emperor.

Claudio Amendola plays Prince Murat in this miniseries, while in Sacha Guitry's earlier Napoléon film, the role of Caroline Murat (Napoleon's sister and Murat's wife) was played by Anna Amendola.

Filming took place between May and October 2001 across Hungary, the Czech Republic, Canada, France, Morocco, Austria and Saint Helena, with production noting that many locations in Hungary closely resembled 19th century France.

The miniseries was shot in two separate versions, one in French with francophone actors and one in English with anglophone actors, with the final soundtrack being post-dubbed.

Battle sequences were enhanced with matte paintings and digital effects, including computer-generated soldiers created by Hybride Technologies added into the footage during post-production.

With a budget of 40 million euros, the miniseries became the most expensive French television fiction ever produced at the time, surpassing the miniseries Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and approaching the cost of the most expensive French film, Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre.

The first two episodes achieved very high ratings on their French premiere, with 37.6% audience share on October 7, 2002 and 31.5% the following day; when it aired in the United States on A&E, it was edited down from six hours to three.

In 2003 the series won a Bavarian TV award and a French 7 d'Or award for Best Director, and was nominated for nine Emmy Awards in the US, winning the Emmy for Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special.

Italian politician Umberto Bossi, founder of the Lega Nord, publicly denounced the miniseries as 'pure Jacobin-style propaganda' that turned into a hero the man responsible for the deaths of 200,000 Italians, prompting Gérard Depardieu to retort that Bossi does not get to decide whether Napoleon was a monster.

A Risk-style video game based on the miniseries, also titled Napoleon, was released on November 14, 2002 by Atari and Infogrames, using some music contributed by the series' composer Richard Grégoire.