Ridley Scott's upcoming biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte starring Joaquin Phoenix has finally gotten a release date.

A new report in

Joaquin, 48, previously earned an Oscar nod for his scenery-chewing performance as the Roman Emperor Commodus in .

Now the pair are reunited for their first movie together in 23 years, once again telling the story of a tyrant whose shadow fell across Europe. 

Entitled Napoleon, the movie follows the military titan's tempestuous romance with his first wife Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby.

Josephine hailed from the colonies, born to an aristocratic family who owned a slaveholding sugarcane plantation on Martinique.

She moved to France in 1779 and embarked on a miserable marriage to her cousin Alexandre de Beauharnais during the twilight of the Ancien Régime.

After losing her first husband to the guillotine in the Reign Of Terror, Josephine became the mistress of soon to be the most powerful man in Europe.

During her turbulent 14-year marriage to Napoleon, she saw herself ascend to the titles of both Empress Of The French and Queen Of Italy.

An incandescent hostess and expert schmoozer, Napoleon's consort was the PR wing of his reign, eliciting his remark: 'I win battles but Josephine wins hearts.'

However their union was rocked by his infidelities and her infertility, to the point he annulled her in 1810 - just two years before he hurled himself into the disastrous invasion of Russia that marked the beginning of the end of his whirlwind rule.

Kirby, who rose to global popularity as Princess Margaret on the first two seasons of The Crown, has been cast as Josephine in Ridley's picture. 

Ridley recently revealed in an interview with