Ridley Scott’s long-awaited “Gladiator” sequel has not even hit U.S. theaters but, however the veteran director is already arduous at work on a 3rd installment.
“Gladiator II,” which arrives in North American cinemas Friday, stars Irish actor Paul Mescal (“Normal People”) as Lucius, the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus from the a number of Oscar-winning authentic.
A bloody, blockbuster epic of revenge, treachery and — sure — gladiators, it has drawn constructive critiques and already hauled in a muscular $87 million on the world field workplace since opening in a number of nations final week.
“Given the performance in the rest of the world that we’ve seen yesterday, there’s certainly going to be a ‘Gladiator III,'” stated Scott, in Los Angeles on Monday for the film’s glitzy US premiere.
“Because it also becomes financial, and you’d be insane not to consider a third version,” stated the British director of seminal movies similar to “Blade Runner” and “Thelma & Louise.”
The plot of “Gladiator II” was additionally “planned to leave it wide open to a sequel,” added Scott, a famously prolific filmmaker who continues to be directing roughly a movie per 12 months on the age of 86.
The second movie opens with Lucius — despatched into exile by his mom to keep away from sure loss of life in Rome — battling in useless to defend his adopted North African residence metropolis from the arrival of seemingly unstoppable Roman troopers.
Captured as a prisoner of struggle, he’s introduced again to the imperial metropolis, the place he should show his price within the Colosseum to be able to precise revenge on invading normal Marcus Acacius, performed by Pedro Pascal.
Danish actress Connie Nielsen reprises her position as Lucilla from the 2000 authentic, whereas Denzel Washington is already incomes Oscar buzz for his conniving, mercurial and extremely flamboyant ringmaster, Macrinus.
“Jewelry, sandals and everything — I just looked like a Roman pimp… I couldn’t put on enough rings,” joked Washington on Monday.
Mescal — whose character battles bloodthirsty baboons, rhinos and sharks along with people in “Gladiator II” — additionally expressed pleasure about returning for an additional movie.
But he stated Scott had mentioned a brand new route for the plot that will not merely “go back to the arena as we know it.”
“The last time I spoke to (Scott) he said he had nine pages. Yesterday, he said he had 14,” Mescal advised journalists.
“I would be excited for it to go into a more political sphere,” with Lucius thrust right into a world of courtroom intrigue that he doesn’t wish to inhabit, like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” added Mescal.
Asked how the second movie’s themes tackled energy and politics in a different way, some 24 years after the unique Scott stated: “They’re exactly the same.”
“A super-rich man thinks he can take over the Empire. Is that familiar?” he stated, simply days after billionaire Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president.
“We don’t learn historically anything. We keep repeating the same mistakes. We’re going through exactly the same thing right now in several parts of the planet,” he added.
© 2024 AFP