Sir Ridley Scott says that making ‘Gladiator 2’ grew to become “an obvious thing to do”.
The 85-year-old filmmaker is helming a long-awaited sequel to his 2000 historic epic and defined how he was initially tentative to revisit Ancient Rome.
Asked what him in making the follow-up, Ridley instructed Deadline: “Well, economically, it makes sense. That always begins there.
“I assumed the (first) movie was, because it had been, utterly passable, creatively full, so why muck with it, proper? But these cycles maintain happening and on, they repeat globally for the final 20 years. It began to spell itself out as an apparent factor to do, and that is the way it developed.”
Paul Mescal plays the lead role of Lucius in the upcoming movie – set for release in November 2024 – and Ridley decided to cast the star after seeing him in the hit TV series ‘Normal People’.
The ‘Blade Runner’ director explained: “I’m at all times on the lookout for somebody, one thing new and recent. I imply, recent is very necessary. So they don’t seem to be carrying… baggage is a horrible phrase for what they’ve carried out earlier than, as a result of it is nice stuff, however you’ll bear in mind he simply did this character already.
“I watched this show called ‘Normal People’. It’s unusual for me, but I saw one and thought, that’s interesting. These actors are really good, I watched the whole goddamn show and thought, damn.
“So this got here up at a time after I want a 23-year-old, 24-year-old to take up the mantle of Lucius. And I simply stated, you need to do it? He stated, yeah.”
Ridley explained that it was harder casting Mescal, 27, as Lucius than choosing Russell Crowe to play the heroic Maximus Decimus Meridius in the original film.
He said: “It’s 20 years on. That was tougher than casting Russell as Maximus, that was extra apparent.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
