Interview

Production Designer

Best of 2024: Maximus Effort: “Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Creating Colossal Constructions

This interview was selected by measures having nothing to do with science as one of our standouts from 2024. Arthur Max was absolutely crucial to Ridley Scott’s vision of creating a completely unhinged, dementedly decadent Rome. To that end, Max delivered, creating not one but two Colosseums for Scott’s epic. Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max ...

By Su Fang Tham  |  January 1, 2025

Interview

Editor Special/Visual Effects

How “Gladiator II” Editors and the VFX Supervisor Shaped Three Ferocious Scenes

Gladiator II picks up fifteen years following the events of Russell Crowe’s portrayal of Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator (2000), an epically visceral film from Ridley Scott that not only won five Oscars, including Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards but is considered one of the greatest action films in movie history – a ...

By Daron James  |  December 9, 2024

Interview

Costume Designer

“Gladiator II” Costume Designers Janty Yates and David Crossman on Lunatic Emperors & Blood-Splattered Warriors

She won an Oscar for outfitting the first Gladiator, and 20 years later, costume designer Janty Yates once again teamed with Ridley Scott to cloak ancient Rome’s ruling class in bespoke finery. Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as a slave who fights his way to freedom, with Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, and ...

By Hugh Hart  |  December 6, 2024

Interview

Cinematographer

“Gladiator II” Cinematographer John Mathieson on Capturing Robotic Rhinos & Colossal Carnage

If you’re in the mood for a visually stunning film with gladiators battling to the death in a flooded Colosseum and a very ripped Paul Mescal going head-to-head with a rhinoceros and a baboon, Ridley Scott’s pulse-pounding period actioner is the movie you’ve been waiting for. Twenty-three years after his first Oscar nomination for the ...

By Su Fang Tham  |  November 27, 2024

Interview

Production Designer

“Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Rebuilding a Decadent, Debased Ancient Rome

In the first installment of our conversation with Gladiator II production designer Arthur Max, he talked about making Ridley Scott’s sequel on an even bigger scale than the original film and staging a naval battle sequence in the desert of Morocco for the opening sequence. Now, let’s find out what it took to flood the ...

By Su Fang Tham  |  November 26, 2024

Interview

Production Designer

Maximus Effort: “Gladiator II” Production Designer Arthur Max on Creating Colossal Constructions

Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max has worked on 16 of Ridley Scott’s films. These include some of American cinema’s most indelible cinematic spectacles, such as the original Gladiator (for which Max scored his first Oscar nod), Black Hawk Down, and The Martian. Despite the impressive body of work between them, Max thinks that the Roman ...

By Su Fang Tham  |  November 25, 2024

Interview

Screenwriter

“Gladiator II” Screenwriter David Scarpa on the Herculean Task of Writing a Worthy Sequel

It’s been a long time coming, but the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, opens in theaters nationwide on November 22. Starring Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), the iconic Denzel Washington, and original cast member Connie Nielsen, Gladiator II finally came to ...

By Hugh Hart  |  November 22, 2024
“Gladiator II” Enters International Arena With a Powerful Opening Weekend

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II burst into the international arena this past weekend with a very strong start. Scott’s sequel to his 2000 Best Picture Winner opened across 63 markets, earning a massive thumbs up from audiences and boasting an $87 million dollar start.  This makes Gladiator II Scott’s overseas debut in his long, illustrious career. Gladiator II also conquered $7 ...

By The Credits  |  November 18, 2024
Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” Unsheathes Ferocious New Trailer

A bloody, bold new trailer for Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s long-awaited followup to his Best Picture Winner, has arrived. The new look is the longest, bloodiest, most thrilling yet. We’re introduced to the art of choosing gladiators, as explained by Denzel Washington’s Macrinus, who is usually sorting through prisoners of war and who sees something ...

By The Credits  |  September 23, 2024