Headliner of “Gladiator II”, Paul Mescal has the role of Lucius, son of Maximus (Russell Crowe), gladiator from the first film.
Paramount Pictures
The long-awaited sequel to “Gladiator” has only just been released and its director, Ridley Scott, has already announced that he is at work on a third part, twenty-four years after the release of the first, crowned with five Oscars.
“Gladiator II” has been on French-speaking screens since Wednesday November 13 and arrives this Friday in the United States with headliner Paul Mescal, Irish actor revealed in the series “Normal people”, in the role of Lucius, son of Maximus (Russell Crowe), Gladiator from the first film, Oscars for best film and best actor.
The blockbuster with its bloody plot and fueled by the hero’s thirst for revenge has attracted relatively good reviews and has already accumulated $87 million in box office revenue in the countries where it was already released last week.
“Given the performances in the rest of the world since yesterday, there will definitely be a Gladiator III,” said Ridley Scott during the American premiere Monday in Los Angeles.
“Because it also becomes financial, it would be crazy not to consider a third version,” added the British director, acclaimed for “Blade Runner” or “Thelma and Louise”.
The script for the second part was “planned to leave a lot of room for the possibility of a sequel,” explains the filmmaker who, at almost 87 years old, has made 18 films since the release in 2000 of the first “Gladiator”.
“Same errors”
Exiled in Numidia (northern Africa), Lucius is taken prisoner of war and in turn becomes a gladiator after the Roman army, led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), invades his adopted land.
Seduced by his rage, Macrinus (Denzel Washington – on the list of potential Oscar winners), a former slave hungry for power, makes him fight in Rome, in a plot very similar to that of the first “Gladiator”, which the film constantly echoes.
“Jewelry, sandals, etc. I look like a Roman pimp (…) I didn’t have enough room on my hands for the rings,” Denzel Washington joked on the red carpet Monday.
Paul Mescal was enthusiastic about the possibility of starring in a third film, indicating that Ridley Scott had discussed a new direction for the plot that would not “just bring it back to the arena as we have seen it” so far. there.
“The last time I spoke to Ridley Scott, he had 9 pages. Yesterday he said he was 14,” the actor told reporters.
“I would be delighted if it went into a more political sphere,” with Lucius thrown into the pit of court intrigues that he would seek to escape, like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” he added.
Asked about the differences between the first and second installments in the way they approach questions of power and politics, the director did not hide his intentions: “It’s exactly the same thing.”
“A very rich man thinks he can simply seize the reins of the empire… does that mean anything to you?” he asked, less than two weeks after the election of Republican billionaire Donald Trump to the White House.
“We learn nothing from history. We are just repeating the same mistakes. We are experiencing the same thing in several places on the planet at the moment.
