Constructing the immense worlds of “Gladiator II” was no easy feat.
And as Ridley Scott details in an exclusive new featurette, which you can watch below, that all started with making sure the screenplay was just right.
“Writing is the most important entity you can possibly have before beginning anything,” Scott said in the featurette. “When I started to think about a sequel, I met with David Scarpa and we sat and talked because I had certain parts in my head.” It’s understandable why Scott would choose Scarpa – the writer had also done “All the Money in the World” and “Napoleon” with the director.
As Scarpa said in the featurette, “He said, essentially, ‘I’d like you to start writing Gladiator II.’ And, of course, I was really excited.”
In the featurette you will also learn how Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla became the heart of the movie, how they made sure Russell Crowe’s Maximus was a part of the film without literally walking around as a ghost and how Denzel Washington’s Macrinus wound up as the movie’s big bad.
If, for some reason, you haven’t seen “Gladiator II” yet, it follows Maximus’ son Lucius (Paul Mescal), a warrior who is drafted into the gladiatorial arena and finds that he’s fighting for much more than his life, especially when he realizes that his estranged mother is with the man responsible for his wife’s murder (a smarmy Pedro Pascal). From there, things get even bigger and nuttier, especially when you throw in two unstable young emperors (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger and a duplicitous slave trader (Washington).
“Gladiator II” is currently in theaters and will be available on PVOD tomorrow on all the major digital retailers.
