Ridley Scott regards his next Roman epic "Gladiator II" as his finest work.
Interviewing Ridley Scott inevitably results in him already heavily involved in his next project, regardless of the film he is about to premiere.
Scott, Hollywood's constant rolling stone even at age 86, could be getting ready to release "Gladiator II," one of his best epics ever, but right now his mind is focused on the Bee Gees. Scott is doing a biographical on the Gibb brothers. He was flanked on a recent Zoom session from his Los Angeles office by painstakingly created storyboards.
Scott has great enthusiasm regarding the idea. "I believe the word transcends mere skill. They were brilliant, he believes, even if the no-nonsense British filmmaker finds the Bee Gees kind of music to be somewhat far away.
Scott answers, "I'm not a disco guy." I move like a (expletive) plowman.
On more familiar territory in "Gladiator II," which Paramount Pictures will premiere Nov. 22, Scott is With Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, he is back in ancient Rome among sandals, swords, and shimmering biceps, for a sequel to his best picture-winning "Gladiator. The setting of "Gladiator II" is many decades later. It centers on Macrinus (Denzel Washington), the grandson of previous emperor Marcus Aurelius, a minor character in "Gladiator" now portrayed by Paul Mescal who is educated as a gladiator by a former slave hoping to capture Rome. Pedro Pascal stars as Roman commander Marcus Acacius.
"Sequels are always sort of dubious," notes Scott. "But to start with, we had a decent logical steppingstone into who next, who survived and where did he go?"
Apart from several "Alien" movies, Scott has mainly avoided sequels all through his career. But "Gladiator II" has been under development, off and on for two decades. And it finally ballooned to one of Scott's most ambitious productions, which speaks to a director who recently unveiled a 3 ½-hour edit of his 2023 epic, "Napoleon." According to some estimates, the budget for "Gladiator II" exceeds $300 million.
But Scott considers the film to be his greatest since he really believes in it. The why?
Laughing, he continues, "It's to frighten the others." And I may be correct as well. I object to counting my hens. However, it's very (expletive) excellent.
Scott's confidence stems from his conviction in his actors, especially Mescal, the Irish actor who broke out on the show "Normal People" before acting in praised films like "Aftersun" and "All of Us Strangers."
"Eighteen months ago I came upon the show "Normal People." For me, it seems a little suburban, et cetera, and so on. I watch one and then another. Who is this guy? I ask. The guy and the girl were both really fascinating. From that, I cast Paul Mescal, Scott says. "Paul has a somewhat severe nose profile, you know. And then, sometime later, Albert Finney. Finney seems to have something about him.
As Scott has gotten older, he seems to have been drawn to larger and more expansive canvases as he paints just for fun. He says, "Napoleon needed 900 men; Gladiator II took 1,200." He is personally in charge of an army. Scott built massive sets in Malta along with his regular production designer, Arthur Max.
"We built Rome," notes Scott. "I found that you have great access, beautiful costumes, and entire blue screen capability. But in every image you take—wide views, over-shoulder shots, close-ups—you are spending money on the blue. Scott raises his hands up for these points. Doing that costs more than building it. I thus created the Colosseum 40% full scale. That was less expensive than Blue Screen. You may also read this: Disney Thrills Audiences at D23 with "Incredibles 3" Announcement
Smaller projects of far less scope have worn down other directors not matching Scott's pace. Scott, a self-described "war baby" born in 1937 whose father was a senior commander in the Royal Engineers, has not shown any slowing down or diminishing desire either. Requested where Scott gets his drive, he says, "DNA."
"My mum was nasty," Scott says. "You have to keep quite fit. I also welcome stress. You cannot complete the work if you do not welcome tension. People become quite scared and anxious; I do not. Over the years, I have come to see it as just embracing it and walking in to say, "Right, everyone over here." We are going to undertake this. They also listen. Considering that I'm endowed with a really excellent eye and motivated creatively, the choice is everything. Decide wisely—bloody. Talk about it just with the window cleaner where you want to install the camera. Otherwise, keep everything under wraps.
For Scott, ads served as his most formative education. Originally running their film and commercial production firm Ridley Scott Associates, he and his brother Tony Scott Especially on television, Scott learned to film with several cameras running concurrently. Not until he was forty did he produce his first feature, "The Duelist," 1977. Now, for a single scene on films like "Gladiator," Scott may have eight or ten cameras running.
"So I grew used to scale," Scott adds. By then I had most likely completed 2,500 advertisements. And in a commercial for yourself, the business, you are running on your own time. Five o'clock marks your payment time. You so run against time continually. Better than anything a film school could teach, I discovered. Every second view a money symbol.
Naturally, that type of magnitude carries risk as well. Against Universal Pictures' "Wicked, another much awaited film although one, with different and maybe complimentary target audiences," "Gladiator II" will release in theaters. Mescal joked about the moviegoing weekend as "Glicked."
Though his major focus is on what it will entail for the next big project he works on, Scott is still hopeful about the movie business.
