At 86 years old, Ridley Scott neither retires nor plans to do so. On the contrary, he shapes his career at breakneck speed as if in a hurry to tell a story that he hasn’t told yet. After his adventure with ‘Napoleon’, the English director returns with ‘Gladiator II’, the sequel to one of the biggest hits of his career. Leading the cast is Paul Mescal, successor in the gladiator arena to Russell Crowe, his father in fiction. Following the bad experiences of ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’ in the hands of other filmmakers, Scott decided that he should direct the second part of ‘Gladiator’. “They were terrible, terrible experiences and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me,” confesses the British director, who is very proud of the result.
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"I am very meticulous when it comes to working. I prepare everything down to the last detail. I like to create a book of drawings before filming the story I am going to tell. I recreate the entire film in drawings because it makes my work on set easier. I am able to draw in detail every scene of the movie as if it were a comic. In fact, I record the entire film before starting to film so that I can then place 11 cameras in 11 minutes. I don't waste time," admits the filmmaker.
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"After thinking a lot and working very hard, everything comes down to what would be a sequel about Lucius. Everything starts with him. I wondered what happens to Lucius. From that moment on, we are no longer in the dark."
— Ridley Scott, director of Gladiator II
In Los Angeles, Mescal, 28, revealed that he felt a little anxious when he had to shoot his first scenes alongside Pedro Pascal. "On the first day on set, it was just Pedro and me, and they consciously kept us in the tents, sort of outside the city walls," the Irishman recalled. "We were sitting in the tents and I was smoking a cigarette, unable to control my nerves, when Ridley came in, also smoking, the three of us started chatting. His kindness disarmed me. It was his way of speaking that allowed me to calm down," the protagonist remembers.
Actors Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, and Fred Hechinger joined Mescal and Pascal in the filming of the second part of Scott's Oscar-winning epic from 2000, 'Gladiator'. "Why have I decided to make the sequel 25 years later? Well, it is a very simple question, but very complex to answer. After thinking a lot and working very hard, everything comes down to what a sequel about Lucius would be. It all starts with him. I wondered what happens to Lucius. From that moment we are no longer in the dark," Scott pointed out. Written by David Scarpa, the same writer as 'Napoleon', 'Gladiator II' features two actors reprising their roles from the original film, Nielsen as Lucilla, mother of Mescal's character, and Derek Jacobi as the Roman senator Gracchus.
Mescal plays Lucius Verus, the vengeful son of Crowe's character, Maximus, who is also a fighter in the movie. "What excited me the most about the character is that it was all on the page. I mean, it was clear to me who the character was, and what the character was thinking from the moment I read the script for the first time. Then, I discovered certain intersections. One always wants a certain amount of scenes in the script that put a lot of pressure on you. That's why the scenes with Connie and the final scenes with Denzel are very important to me, integral to the story. They are not only important to me, but for the narrative to work. The rest are scenes to fill out the character and fundamentally, for the audience to believe that he can win all the fights he participates in. That is not just physical, it is also psychological. It is necessary to develop a psychology and believe that you are the strongest guy in the room, and not because you are the strongest. That, for me, as an actor, is very fun to play."
"The scenes with Connie (Nielsen) and the final scenes with Denzel (Washington) are very important to me, integral to the story. They are not only important to me, but for the narrative to work."
— Paul Mescal, protagonist
"I have learned alongside Ridley Scott, an endlessly kind person. I think as a director he requires concentration from his actors. I have learned by his side that the work we do is precious, something sacred, and what we have while making the film is precious. I don't know, maybe it shouldn't surprise me but Ridley Scott's career continues to surprise me, his legacy. He continues to work in the present with a career that he has shaped and built for himself with his talent. His work is done in the present and remains relevant, and has nothing to do with the past," Mescal adds.
'Gladiator' was a movie that conquered the world. It won several Academy Awards, revived the weakened "sword and sandal" film genre in 2000, and put the director of 'Blade Runner' back on the map. It was a triumph in many ways for its cast and for movie lovers. Rumors about a sequel persisted for over two decades... but finally became a reality. “It has been difficult for me, it is hard for me to sit in front of a blank page and develop 120 pages. But from the moment I thought I was going to tell Lucius' story, I knew I was going to shoot this movie,” the filmmaker says. Like the original 'Gladiator', 'Gladiator II' shines in its production design. From start to finish, one feels transported to the days when the Roman Empire ruled the world, with elaborate fortresses, temples, arenas, and secret passages. We have seen many movies with gladiator battles in ancient arenas, but this is the only one that recreates a Roman naval battle in an arena, with flooded terrain and bloodthirsty sharks. At almost 90 years old, Scott competes with Clint Eastwood behind the cameras, filming classic after classic to the delight of the audience. In fact, the British filmmaker is so pleased with 'Gladiator II' that during the sequel's promotion, he has extensively talked about a continuation in which he would already be involved, bringing back Paul Mescal to star in 'Gladiator III'. The director may give priority to this third part over the Bee Gees biopic and the thriller titled 'Bomb' that were already piling up on the agenda, and Mescal can now set his nerves aside because he masters the art of the sword perfectly.
Plot
Long after the death of Maximus, his son Lucius and his allies suffer a devastating defeat at the hands of the Roman Empire, resulting in great personal losses. Shortly after, he is forced to enter the arena as a gladiator, swearing revenge against the man who put him there. Behind the scenes, there are plots to overthrow the twin emperors who have plunged Rome into misery and corruption.
24 years old
It has been since the release of Gladiator.
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