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Weeks before the release of Gladiator II, Ridley Scott has suggested that he wants to make his Roman epic into a trilogy.
Scott directed the original Gladiator in 2000, and has returned for the new sequel starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington.
It remains to be seen whether this long-awaited follow-up will prove a hit with audiences. Nonetheless, Scott has said that he has already “lit the fuse” for a third entry.
“I’m already toying with the idea of Gladiator 3,” the Blade Runner filmmaker said in an interview with French magazine Premiere. “No, seriously! I’ve lit the fuse…
“The ending of Gladiator II is reminiscent of The Godfather, with Michael Corleone finding himself with a job he didn’t want, and wondering, ‘Now, Father, what do I do?’ So the next [film] will be about a man who doesn’t want to be where he is.”
The original Gladiator starred Russell Crowe as Maximus, a Roman general turned slave on an epic mission of revenge. Because Maximus was slain at the end of the first film by his uncle Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Crowe is not returning for the sequel.
Earlier this year, Crowe dispelled rumours that his character was set to appear in a flashback, and admitted that he was “slightly uncomfortable with the fact they’re making another” Gladiator movie.
“Because, of course, I’m dead and I have no say in what gets done,” he said. “A couple of the things I’ve heard [about the plot of the sequel], I’m like, ‘No, no, no, that’s not in the moral journey of that particular character.’
“But I can’t say anything, it’s not my place, I’m six feet under. So we’ll see what that is like.”
In the build-up to the new film’s release, Scott has teased some of Gladiator II’s elaborate action sequences, revealing that the film will contain “probably the biggest action sequence I’ve ever done... probably bigger than anything in [2023 historical epic] Napoleon.”
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Scott revealed that the action sequence in question will feature a CGI rhinocerous.
“Computerization and AI – you have to embrace it,” he said. “I can have a computer read every molecule and wrinkle on a rhino and then cut it on a thick piece of plastic, absolutely as a rhino’s body, which is then tailored to a skeleton shape.”
“I have this thing that can do 40 miles an hour, spin on the spot, wag its head and snarl. A two-ton rhino with a guy on its back! I mean, it’s a lot of fun.”
Gladiator 2 will be released in cinemas on 15 November 2024.
