Ridley Scott has talked about the action scenes in the highly anticipated Gladiator sequel, teasing that the film opens with the biggest fight sequence in his career.
The sequel to Scott’s Oscar-winning epic starring Russell Crowe will focus on Paul Mescal’s Lucius, who is the son of Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen in the original. Lucius is also the nephew of Commodus, the antagonist from the original film, played by Joaquin Phoenix.
Gladiator II also stars Pedro Pascal as Marcus Acacius, Denzel Washington as Macrinus, and Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn as Emperor Geta.
“We begin the film with probably the biggest action sequence I’ve ever done,” Scott told Empire.
“Probably bigger than anything in Napoleon.”
Without giving too much away, Scott shared that the audience will watch Lucius taking a rhinoceros in the Colosseum – albeit not a real one.
“Computerization and AI – you have to embrace it,” Scott 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.”
The rhinoceros in question can be seen in the trailer, being led out of the gates into the Colosseum, with a man in armour on his back.
“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,” Scott said.
The film has been steadily generating interest since its first look dropped on 9 July.
After footage from the film was aired at CinemaCon in April, Variety reported that the trailer showed Mescal “face off against a charging rhino, a horde of vicious baboons, and Pedro Pascal, among other threats to his chiselled physique”.
“It is possibly even more extraordinary than the first,” Scott said in a video message at the annual event attended by cinema exhibitors in Las Vegas. “[It] is well worth the wait.”
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Russell Crowe, who played Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius in the original Gladiator, said earlier he was “slightly uncomfortable” with the sequel.
“Because, of course, I’m dead and I have no say in what gets done,” he said, explaining that he is not a fan of what he has heard of the new film’s plot, in an interview with Kyle Meredith.
“A couple of the things I’ve heard I’m like, ‘No, no, no, that’s not in the moral journey of that particular character,’” he said.
“But I can’t say anything, it’s not my place, I’m six feet under. So we’ll see what that is like.”
Gladiator II is expected to release in theatres on 15 November.
