Ridley Scott is likely to be pretty happy that filming on Gladiator 2 has wrapped, following an ‘eventful’ shoot.
Bless Ridley Scott. The man is in his 80s and is making films with the sort of energy that someone half his age would struggle to match. Even still, the production of Gladiator 2 must have tested even his legendary levels of endurance. It’s all over now, though, reports World of Reel, with Scott and star Paul Mescal taking to social media to celebrate the production coming to a close.
Let’s recap on just how tricky a shoot it was for Scott and his collaborators. Back in the summer, four crew were hospitalised when a filming sequence went wrong. That alone would make things difficult, but that came on the heels of Barry Keoghan leaving on the eve of production due to a scheduling conflict. Losing an actor of Keoghan’s calibre would be a blow to any film, but Scott soon had his hands full with even bigger problems: the strike that shut down the production in Malta.
Because the production opted to keep the soundstages it was using, it reportedly cost around $600,000 per week to secure their services – even though no filming was happening. The shutdown is said to have added around $10m to the film’s budget. Yikes.
Oh, and then there are the baboons.
Okay, we’re not actually sure if the baboons were a problem. We hope – given that everything else the production had to endure – that they were a very well behaved bunch. Still , that’s a lot for any director to have to handle, but we’re sure Scott pulled it off with his trademark aplomb. Now we just have to sit back and wait for the press tour where he’ll no doubt entertain us with a piece or two of his mind.
Paul Mescal will lead the film with Fred Hechinger, May Calamawy, Lior Raz, Peter Mensah, Matt Lucas all featuring. We also get Derek Jacobi, who reprises his role as Gracchus. Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Connie Nielsen, the latter of whom is reprising her role as Lucilla, are all co-starring.
Gladiator 2 is set to release in November.
