With “Gladiator II,” Ridley Scott returns to the bloody world of his Oscar-winning swords-and-sandals epic. Starring Paul Mescal as Lucius, a younger prisoner turned gladiator, this sequel goes larger and wilder than its predecessor, together with monkeys, rhinos and even sharks in its grand motion sequences.
To recreate the epic scope of the unique movie and reimagine it for audiences in 2024, Scott reunited with lots of his longtime collaborators. This included particular results supervisor Neil Corbould. Joining him was visible results supervisor Mark Bakowski.
Unlike Corbould, who has labored with Scott for many years (he received an Oscar for “Gladiator” and was nominated simply final yr for “Napoleon”), Bakowski was thrilled to be working with the famed director for the primary time .
“He’s loopy,” Bakowski says, laughing by way of Zoom, in regards to the English director. “But clearly in a wonderful approach. He shoots quick and likes to maneuver. He says, “Let me go.” It’s all rush, rush, rush. It’s glorious. But it took some getting used to.
“I as soon as heard him shout, ‘I would like 4 donkeys (there might need been a foul phrase in there) and I would like them now!’” Bakowski remembers. “And someway they appeared.”
Scott’s consideration to element went hand in hand with an instinctive strategy to choices giant and small. Bakowski highlights the selection to incorporate baboons affected by alopecia in a key scene wherein Lucius first proves himself a worthy fighter when confronted with Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a conniving former slave with unbridled ambitions for the Roman throne.
“They confirmed the baboon to Ridley as a result of it had an attention-grabbing anatomical construction,” Bakowski remembers. “The thought was merely to have a look at the muscular tissues and tendons which might be a very good reference for us after we constructed it.”
But Scott was instantly smitten with this hairless primate, insisting it was the creature Lucius fends off together with his naked palms. That scene is however one instance the place “Gladiator II” used visible results (and a variety of 6-foot-tall stuntmen standing in for these menacing baboons, a problem in itself that Bakowski’s crew needed to cope with) to create the sort of a bit that may have been unthinkable 25 years in the past.
Yet “Gladiator” nonetheless loomed giant within the eyes of everybody concerned, particularly when it got here to redesigning the movie’s most iconic location: the Colosseum.
“When we began, we chatted with this historical past professor,” Bakowski says. “He confirmed us what, based on his interpretation, the Colosseum must be. So we tailored the Colosseum to his mission. Then we began taking a look at it in pictures and it regarded nothing like “Gladiator.” It appears to be like fully completely different. Basically, it may be proper, however it simply did not look that good.
The alternative was easy: Lucius would battle in the identical Colosseum that Russell Crowe’s Maximus had fought in twenty years earlier. In the tip, the constructed set regarded virtually an identical to the one constructed for the 2000 movie.
It was there that Bakowski noticed firsthand how a grasp storyteller like Scott orchestrated a number of the movie’s most complex sequences.
“He units it up like an enormous symphony,” Bakowski says. “And then generally a scene simply unfolds, just like the naval battle. He would shoot for minutes and minutes at a time with, say, 10, 12 cameras. Organize any such occasion, a sort of small model of a battle. And all these cameras in there simply file it.
“Sometimes a scene simply flows, just like the naval battle. He would shoot for minutes and minutes at a time with, say, 10, 12 cameras,” visible results supervisor Mark Bakowski says of “Gladiator II” director Ridley Scott.
(Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures)
That battle takes place in a flooded Colosseum stuffed with bloodthirsty tiger sharks. There, Lucius and his fellow gladiators should mount a full-scale assault on a warring ship for the leisure of hundreds of Romans watching, together with his brother emperors, Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger).
“I’ve by no means seen something prefer it,” Bakowski says. “It’s fairly shut by way of vitality. It shouldn’t be made for a goal. The lenses all match the motion.”
The crackling authenticity created by these pictures proved to be a welcome problem for all the “Gladiator II” crew. Especially for the reason that authentic plan for a way that sea battle could be filmed needed to be scrapped.
“The actors’ strike occurred proper in the course of filming,” notes Bakowski. “We had this week and a half the place all of the actors had been gone, however the stunts had been nonetheless there as a result of they weren’t SAG. So we had this time. And Ridley was like, “Do you recognize what we’ll do?” We will shoot the naval battle of the Colosseum.’”
Except the water tank the particular results crew hoped to make use of for the sequence wasn’t prepared. If they had been going to shoot that battle, they must do it realizing that every one the water must be added in postproduction. This is strictly what they did.
To create the ultimate sequence it was essential to artfully sew collectively footage from 4 separate areas that came about each earlier than and after the affect, some with in-camera water results and others in fully dry circumstances.
Such an extravagant spectacle captures how “Gladiator II” does not merely reenact what got here earlier than. There is a boldness that builds on Scott’s historic legacy.
“Technology has moved ahead,” as Bakowski says. “We can do extra. We’re doing much more pictures: 10, 12 instances greater than the primary movie. The motion is completely different. But hopefully the spirit of the unique movie is there, and we hope to honor the extraordinary achievement that it was.”
