Al Pacino is to portray Napoleon Bonaparte in a movie called The Monster of Longwood.
It tells about the French dictator's last days and his relationship with a British girl who befriended him after he was exiled to the South Atlantic isle of St Helena.
The movie, which is being written byPaul Auster, is already facing tough competition.
A rival project called Napoleon and Betsy will feature Scarlett Johansson as the same British beauty in a similar storyline, and the two movies are already battling it out in court and in the pages of the trade press.
"They are doing something outrageously and grossly malicious," said Longwood producer Howard Rosenman, who accused principal figures from the rival movie, including Johansson and her producer mother Melanie, of copying his film's script.
Melanie Johansson has strenuously denied the charges. "This comes out of jealousy," she told Variety. "Our project is based on a true story. I would say that Howard Rosenman is a psychotic person."
