2024-09-16 12:43:17
With the exception of the sci-fi saga Alien, Englishman Ridley Scott has so far avoided directing sequels to his films. “Second installments are always a bit suspect. But in this case, it offered a logical springboard for which characters survived and how the story continued,” he explains, explaining why he made an exception and filmed the second installment of his 2000 historical epic Gladiator.
According to the AP agency, the film Gladiator II, which will be shown in Czech cinemas on November 14, takes place several decades after the first part. The hero of the five Oscar-winning story from ancient Rome, played by Russell Crowe, is no longer alive. The focus thus shifts to Lucius, the grandson of the former emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is played by Paul Mescal. In the news, he is raised as a gladiator by a former slave who has the ambition to conquer Rome and who is played by Denzel Washington. The fictitious Roman general was then portrayed by Pedro Pascal.
Ridley Scott first started thinking about the sequel in 2001. But he only filmed it now, when he is 86 years old. And he immediately names Gladiator II as possibly his best film. “To intimidate others,” he explains to the AP agency. “But also because I think it could really be true. Of course, don’t say hop until you jump. But it really worked out,” he claims.
He cites the performance of Irish actor Paul Mescal as one of the reasons. He discovered the star of the films Aftersun or All My Strangers in the TV series Normal People. “I came across it about a year and a half ago. It looked a bit burgeoning, I thought it wouldn’t be for me. But I watched one episode, then another and couldn’t take my eyes off him. He and the girl are absolutely gorgeous ,” says the director about the series in which Paul Mescal starred with actress Daisy Edgar-Jones.
“Based on that, I called him. He has such a distinctive profile because of his nose. And he reminds me of Albert Finney in a way. There’s a piece of Finney in him,” he compares the 28-year-old actor to the now deceased star of British cinema of the 20th century.
The older Ridley Scott gets, the more grandiose projects he seems to initiate. Last year, he released the historical film Napoleon, on which 900 people worked. In the case of Gladiator II, there were already 1,200 of them.
Paul Mescal as Lucius. | Photo: Cuba Scott
On the island of Malta, Scott and his long-time expedition leader Arthur Max built majestic sets, including a replica of the largest Roman amphitheater, the Colosseum.
“We built Rome,” sums up Scott, who is said to have considered whether or not to shoot on the so-called bluescreen, where the actors move in front of a monochrome green or blue background and this is then digitally replaced by computer-generated trick backdrops. “But every shot you do with bluescreen, whether it’s a whole or a detail, costs an awful lot of money. In the final, it’s more expensive than building the sets. So we built the Colosseum about 40 percent as big as the real thing. It was cheaper than computer tricks,” Scott believes.
However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the budget of Gladiator II swelled from the original 165 million dollars to roughly 310 million, or seven billion crowns. Last year’s Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike was partly to blame. The crew had to refute accusations that they did not take enough care of the animals on the set, specifically the horses and monkeys, the Los Angeles Times wrote. According to the BBC, as a result of the explosion on the set, several stuntmen ended up in hospital with minor burns. No one was seriously injured.
When asked where, despite his advanced age, he gets the energy to embark on such large-scale projects, Ridley Scott says that he has it in his wine.
The director of the films Alien, Blade Runner or The Martian was born in 1937. Two years later, the World War began, where his father served as an officer with British engineers and spent most of his time at the front.
“Mother was fierce. You have to keep fit. And you have to be able to take stress. If you can’t do that, you have no business in film. People tend to be stressed, I’m not. I’ve learned over the years how to deal with it, when you have to call people and decide we’re going to do this now and we’re going to solve that. You have to be able to make decisions. You can’t endlessly discuss with every window washer where to put the camera,” he illustrates.
He learned to shoot on several cameras in parallel while working on commercials. Because of them, he and his brother, the late Tony Scott, founded Ridley Scott Associates in the late 1960s.
It wasn’t until he was in his forties in 1977 that he directed his first feature film, a drama about two officers of the Napoleonic army called Rivals. Today, when working on big-budget productions like Gladiator II, he is used to having up to ten cameras on at once.
“I learned how to work on a large scale. When I was shooting The Rivals, I had like 2,500 commercials. And if you do a commercial and you screw up, it comes out of your pocket. If you don’t make it by five in the afternoon, you pay overtime. That taught me to respect schedule better than any film school,” says Scott, who graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
A photo from Gladiator II features Pedro Pascal as General Acacius and Paul Mescal as Lucius. | Photo: Aidan Monaghan
In his words, Gladiator II will begin with “probably the biggest action scene I’ve ever shot,” the creator, who has already filmed the siege of Kerak in 1183 for the epic Kingdom of Heaven or the Battle of Auburn for last year’s Napoleon, told Empire magazine. Nevertheless, he admits that Gladiator II carries a certain risk and success is not guaranteed in advance. In addition, one of the most anticipated films of the year will have its world premiere in the same week as the Hollywood musical Enchantress.
Nevertheless, Ridley Scott is already thinking about another project. He has just finished a three and a half hour director’s cut of Napoleon. And now he is immersed in the preparations of a full-length biopic about the British group Bee Gees, concludes the AP agency.
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