Again in 2000, director Ridley Scott (and screenwriters David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson) took us again to 180 AD for Gladiator, which advised the story of Roman basic Maximus Decimus Meridius (performed by Russell Crowe), who’s favored by Emperor Marcus Aurelius to be his successor as a result of his personal son, Commodus, is unfit to rule. Commodus disagrees, so he murders his father, has Maximus arrested, and has Maximus’s spouse and son killed. Whereas Commodus establishes himself as the brand new emperor, Maximus escapes from captivity – solely to be captured once more, this time by slavers who promote him off to turn out to be a gladiator. Quickly he’s combating in entrance of Commodus in Rome’s Colosseum… and all of it builds as much as Commodus difficult Maximus to a duel. Gladiator was a significant field workplace success and racked up a number of Academy Award wins, together with Greatest Image. So there was already discuss of a sequel in 2001, however it ended up taking greater than twenty years to get a sequel into manufacturing. Gladiator II is now prepared to achieve theatres, courtesy of Paramount Footage (home) on November 22, 2024 and Common Footage (worldwide) on November 15th – so we’ve put collectively an inventory of every thing we learn about this sequel.
DIRECTOR AND SCRIPT
Ridley Scott all the time deliberate to return to the helm for Gladiator II. The hold-up was the script. Since Maximus died on the finish of Gladiator, screenwriters discovered it very troublesome to determine learn how to proceed the story, particularly for the reason that preliminary thought was that Russell Crowe would return as Maximus in some capability. The primary writers to be concerned have been David Franzoni and John Logan, who crafted a narrative that will decide up fifteen years after the occasions of the primary film and heart on the Lucius character, who was a baby performed by Spencer Deal with Clark in Gladiator. Whereas the Praetorian Guards rule Rome, Lucius can be looking for out the reality of his parentage as a result of the thought was all the time that, though his mom (Commodus’s sister Lucilla, performed by Connie Nielsen) would say that his father was the late Lucius Verus, it was really Maximus. This story would have allowed for some prequel components, however would have additionally seen Maximus being resurrected… someway. In accordance with Crowe, there was a time after they have been simply going to have Maximus rise from the lifeless like Jesus Christ.
Musician Nick Cave was employed to write down his personal model of the script, and this one has gotten a number of consideration as a result of how over-the-top and insane it was. Cave’s title of alternative was Christ Killer, and would have (as Cave defined on Marc Maron’s podcast) “found Maximus in purgatory as he’s sent down by the gods, who are dying in Heaven because there’s this one god, there’s this Christ character, down on Earth who is gaining popularity and so the many gods are dying so they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and his followers. Maximus was tricked by the gods, as the Christ character that they’ve sent him to kill was his own son, the one who died in the first movie. The end of the film would have found Maximus living forever, fighting battles throughout history, such as the Crusades, World War II, and Vietnam, before ending up as a General in the modern-day Pentagon.”
Issues obtained quiet for a decade after Cave turned in his script, however in 2017 Scott began pushing the sequel ahead once more whereas swearing that he had discovered a strategy to deliver Maximus again that will make sense. The City and High Gun: Maverick author Peter Craig was employed to write down a brand new script that will once more heart on Lucius, this time 25 to 30 years after the occasions of Gladiator. Craig discovered the thought robust to crack, so then Scott introduced on his Napoleon author David Scarpa. And it’s Scarpa who wrote the script that lastly went into manufacturing in 2023.
CAST
The long-awaited sequel stars Paul Mescal (Regular Individuals), enjoying the grownup Lucius. One report tell us, “Before he died, Maximus rescued Lucius and his mother from the clutches of the young man’s uncle, Commodus. The event left an impression on Lucius, who aspires to be as formidable as Maximus as he braves a harsh world.” Mescal is joined within the solid by Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) as Emperor Geta (changing Barry Keoghan within the position, as he needed to drop out because of scheduling conflicts), Joseph Quinn (Stranger Issues) as Emperor Caracalla, and – in roles that weren’t specified when their involvement was introduced – Pedro Pascal (The Final of Us), Lior Raz (The Crowded Room), Peter Mensah (Spartacus), and Matt Lucas (Wonka).
Might Calamawy (Moon Knight) is in there as nicely, and whereas we don’t know who she’s enjoying, it was mentioned that her character is sort of vital to the story, so Scott did a “thorough search” earlier than Calamawy earned the position over the course of a number of auditions.
Gladiator solid member Derek Jacobi is reprising the position of Senator Gracchus and Connie Nielsen is again as Lucius’s mom Lucilla. Scott made certain to contain Nielsen as a lot as attainable in the course of the growth of the story.
Denzel Washington (American Gangster) is enjoying somebody Scott described to Deadline as being a personality who’s parallel to Lucius. “The owner of a business that supplied weapons for the Romans, who supplied the oil when they traveled, who supplied the wine they drink. They wouldn’t drink water, they drank wine. When they traveled, who would supply wagons and horses and tack? There had to be the arms dealers of the period; here is a man who already rich from supplying the weapons, the catapults. His hobby is like a racing stable except it’s gladiators. He’s got a stable of 30 or 40 gladiators. He likes to actually see them fight and it evolves that that’s where he came from. He was captured in North Africa, and evolved into a free man because he was a good gladiator. But he hides that because also he’s now realizing the potential of his actual power. He’s wealthier than most senators, so already has thoughts and designs of the possible idea of taking power from these two crazy princes.”
Absent from the solid is Russell Crowe, as Maximus stays in his grave in any case. Crowe doesn’t appear happy that individuals hold asking him in regards to the sequel – throughout an look on the Karlovy Differ Worldwide Movie Competition, he mentioned, “They should be f*cking paying me for the amount of questions I get asked about the f*cking film that I am not even in.” – however he has additionally mentioned that he thinks will probably be “absolutely spectacular” and he’s jealous of the experiences Mescal obtained to have on set. In an interview with Kyle Meredith, Crowe did point out that he has points with the story being advised within the sequel. “I’m barely uncomfortable with the actual fact they’re making one other one — as a result of, in fact, I’m lifeless and I’ve no say in what will get finished. However a few the issues I’ve heard I’m like, ‘No, no, no, that’s not within the ethical journey of that exact character’. However I can’t say something, it’s not my place, I’m six foot beneath. So we’ll see what that’s like.“
PRODUCTION
Gladiator II began filming in Might of 2023 – and the manufacturing wasn’t a simple journey. A month into filming, six crew members have been left with non-life-threatening burn accidents after they have been by accident caught in a big explosion that went off in the course of the filming of a stunt sequence. A studio spokesperson assured The Solar that “The safety and full medical services teams on-site were able to act quickly so that those who were impacted immediately received necessary care. They are all in stable condition and continue to receive treatment.”
Two months into filming, manufacturing needed to shut down as a result of Display screen Actors Guild strike. The strike went on from July into November, with Scott utilizing that point to edit collectively 90 minutes of footage (and presumably movie some extra footage with non-SAG extras). Earlier than filming may resume in December, the deteriorating units needed to be repaired. A huge recreation of historic Rome, together with a life-size Colosseum, had been constructed for the manufacturing, and these open-air units needed to be left sitting there for 4 months whereas the strike performed out. So it took a while to repair them up earlier than the solid and crew may get again to work.
The strike helped the price range get out of hand. The film was presupposed to price $165 million, however The Hollywood Reporter revealed that prices had ballooned to someplace within the $250 million to $310 million vary. For this venture alone, the studio misplaced $600,000 per week in the course of the strike.
There have been additionally rumblings from PETA in regards to the mistreatment of horses and monkeys on the set, however crew members refuted these claims, saying the Humane Society was all the time on set to supervise the remedy of the animals.
Filming wrapped in January after happening in England, Morocco, and Malta. By filming in Malta (which was additionally a filming location for the primary film), the manufacturing earned a €46.7 million rebate, which is over $50 million in USD. In order that brings some aid, regardless of the price range being uncontrolled.
CINEMACON TRAILER
A five-minute trailer, which was preceded by a video introduction wherein Scott mentioned Gladiator II is “more spectacular than the original,” was screened on the CinemaCon occasion in early April. JoBlo’s personal Chris Bumbray was in attendance and reported that the trailer was unbelievable. He wrote in, “Paul Mescal looks a lot like Russell Crowe, with the same beard. Lucius is a gladiator trained by Denzel Washington’s character. Meanwhile, Pedro Pascal is a Roman general trying to lead a revolt against the sadistic emperor (Joseph Quinn). At some point, Quinn and Mescal meet in the gladiator ring for a battle. The games are more sadistic this time, with the gladiators fighting wild baboons unarmed and a rhino. You also see lots of Connie Nielsen, who seems to be in cahoots with Denzel and opposes the emperor. Gladiator II has a ton of action and intrigue. Mescal and Pascal look like they handle the action side, with no shots of Denzel fighting.”
Not talked about in that write-up was the truth that the trailer options “a scene where they flood the Colosseum and have the gladiators fight sharks.” Which could sound over-the-top and ridiculous to some, however within the early days of the Colosseum, the place would sometimes be flooded so it might be used to host staged ship battles known as naumachia… and sure, apparently they might launch sharks and different sea creatures into the flooded construction as nicely. So there’s a reflection of actuality on this madness.
Footage from Gladiator II was additionally proven on the 2024 CineEurope commerce present, the place Paramount President of Worldwide Theatrical Distribution Mark Viane mentioned the sequel has a few of the “biggest action sequences ever put on film.”
That’s every thing we learn about Gladiator II proper now, however with the discharge date simply seven months away, we must be studying extra in regards to the movie very quickly.
