And Tron: Legacy a Top Gun: Maverick Hollywood has now accustomed us to seeing sequels made decades after the debut of the first chapter. Follow-ups that can also take the form of so-called “legacyquel”as in the case of Star Wars: The Force Awakens o di Ghostbusters: Legacy. These operations sometimes bring a lot of satisfaction – in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars – into the coffers of those who produce them with stratospheric performances that are not always predictable or predictable. Just like in the case of the second film mentioned in the opening of this article which brought it back to the big screen Tom Cruise with his Pete “Maverick” Mitchell 36 years after his first appearance.
A filmmaker who knows something about these operations is Ridley Scott. A few years ago he produced, directed by Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 which, in 2017, resumed the threads of a story that began in 1982. The results, at least the economic ones, were on average unsuccessful. Things are going a little better with The gladiator 2which he directed himself, a film which materialized in cinemas 24 years after the feature film with Russell Crowe.
At the time of writing, the blockbuster is at 398 million dollars at the box office, still far from that threshold of 600 million which should guarantee the break-even point (but it must be considered that the project received record tax breaks). It must be said that he still has the entire holiday season ahead of him and is continuing to generate a lot of talk. And it is also doing so in view of the awards season, so much so that Ridley Scott spoke about it with Christopher Nolan in a Q&A FYC held at DGA Theater di West Hollywood after a screening.
Long live streaming
The Oscar-winning director of Oppenheimer asked his illustrious colleague why, after all this time, he decided to get to work on Chapter 2 of a story more than 20 years old. Ridley Scott explained that the decision was based entirely on continued popularity of the original film starring Russell Crowe and the love people continue to give it. A flame, that of Gladiator, which has managed to remain alive also thanks to streaming platforms.
Indeed, Scott attributes the honors to streaming, saying: “Thank God for all the streaming platforms. I can press a button and watch the first movie I made 40-odd years ago. Last night I watched The Duelists. Thanks to the platformsfilms develop a life of their own”. But there's more. Precisely with the hand of a platform, Hulu specifically, the filmmaker found the protagonist of Gladiator 2. It was by watching the TV series Normal People that he discovered Paul Mescal. A relationship, that of Scott with streaming, which is characterized by being able to see what he wants: “I need a bedtime story, so I'll probably watch a movie” explains the Alien dad “I tend to watch new talent”.
A set that also impressed Denzel Washington
Having two directors like Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott as the protagonists of a Q&A inevitably means seeing them end up talking about the productive scope of their blockbusters. On the other hand, we are talking about two authors who certainly do not disdain the use of special effects, but who, when possible, tend to use external locations as much as possible.
To produce The gladiator 2Ridley Scott used both impressive sets set up in Malta (by virtue of the very generous tax credit we have already mentioned), but also in Morocco. We have already told you in our in-depth analysis on making of the naval battle of the prologue that the Moroccan production segment of The gladiator 2 was held at the Atlas Studios located on the outskirts of Ouarzazate. Scott had already worked on it for both the first Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, while, for The Crusades, he had the set built with the walls of Jerusalem which he recycled for the filming of the blockbuster starring Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal.
A recycling which, Scott laughingly tells Nolan, was obviously not possible to do for free: “For this film I had to rent my own set for a million dollars” Scott said. “So they had the last laugh.”.
Regardless of the laughter of those who cashed the checks, however The gladiator 2 the director had palaces, coliseums, parts of villages built because according to him “If you build the set and know what you're doing, it's cheaper than bluescreen. Every shot has a cost.”. Denzel Washington, who had already worked with Scott on American Gangster, often underlined during the press activity for the film that the ones he walked on for this blockbuster were the most impressive sets he had ever seen in his career. “Denzel, strangely enough, was surprised by the scale and scope of things,” Scott tells Nolan. “He was actually nervous. Something great was born from this.”.
Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott's 11 cameras
In the Q&A, Christopher Nolan wanted to delve deeper into a technical and stylistic issue of Gladiator 2: the one about the 11 cameras used simultaneously by Ridley Scott to film some scenes. Scott explained that it all stems from his background directing live television at the BBC. With cameras outputting to a video monitor, he is able to edit everything in his head, selecting each shot as the scene is in progress. There is also the ability to exploit lighting from different angles because a front light for one camera becomes a backlight for another pointing in the opposite direction. At this point, the director also allows himself a small digression on the production of one of his best-known masterpieces, Alien.
In his first films, the director operated the camera himself. For Alien he relied on his assistant operator, the late Adrian Biddlewho he promoted to director of photography for Thelma & Louise e 1492 – The conquest of paradise. He was always ready to slow down Scott before he crashed into the walls of the Nostromo spaceship.
“It was all done by hand free because the corridors were very narrow” Scott said. “Adrian became my pillow”. Nolan also showed a certain curiosity about how his colleague approaches the construction of a world as imposing as that of Gladiator 2. For Scott it's all a question of departments.
“You are managing a corporation of 1,200 people with 40 department managers” says Scott who adds “The key to how it works is that people have to talk to each other. Everyone tends to keep problems to themselves and try to solve them themselves. All you have to do is ask someone if they have a problem and then, period, he'll tell you”. The secret of Ridley Scott's cinema is all here.
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