Ridley Scott rebuilds Rome for 'Gladiator II'

NEW YORK (AP) — An inevitable fact of interviewing Ridley Scott is that, whatever movie he’s about to release, you’ll find him already knee-deep in his next project.

Scott, Hollywood’s perpetual rolling stone even at age 86, may be preparing to unveil “Gladiator II,” one of his biggest epics yet, but at the moment he’s got the Bee Gees on the brain. Scott is developing a biopic on the Gibb brothers. On a recent Zoom call from his office in Los Angeles, he was surrounded by meticulously plotted storyboards.

Scott is enthusiastic about the project. “I think the word is beyond talented. They were gifted,” he says — even if the Bee Gees brand of music seems quite distant from the no-nonsense British director.

“I’m not a disco guy,” Scott says. “I dance like a (expletive) plowman.”

Scott is on more familiar turf in “Gladiator II,” which Paramount Pictures will release Nov. 22. He's back in ancient Rome, among sandals, swords and glistening biceps, for a sequel to his best picture-winning “Gladiator,” with Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. “Gladiator II” is set a couple decades after that film. It focuses on the grandson of former emperor Marcus Aurelius — a minor character in “Gladiator” now played by Paul Mescal — who’s mentored as a gladiator by a former slave with aspirations of seizing Rome, Macrinus (Denzel Washington). Pedro Pascal co-stars as the Roman general Marcus Acacius.

“Sequels are always kind of suspect,” says Scott. “But to begin with, we had a good logical stepping stone into who next, who survived and where did he go.”

Aside from numerous “Alien” films, Scott has largely eschewed sequels throughout his career. “Gladiator II” had been in development, off and on, for two decades, though. And it ultimately swelled to one of Scott’s most massive projects — which is saying something for a filmmaker who just released a 3 ½-hour cut of his 2023 epic, “Napoleon.” Some reports have pegged the budget for “Gladiator II” at above $300 million.

But Scott believes in the movie so much that he’s called it his best. Why?

“It’s to frighten the others,” he says, chuckling. “And I think I might be right. I don’t want to count my chickens. But it’s pretty (expletive) good.”

Part of Scott’s confidence comes from his belief in his cast, particularly Mescal, the Irish actor who broke out on the series “Normal People” before starring in acclaimed films like “Aftersun” and “All of Us Strangers.”

“Eighteen months ago I found a show, ‘Normal People.’ I think for me it looks a bit suburban, et cetera, et cetera. I watch one, then I watch another. I say, ‘Who is this guy?’ Both the guy and the girl were absolutely interesting. From that, I cast Paul Mescal,” Scott says. “You know, Paul has got that harsh profile with the nose. And then a little bit of Albert Finney. There’s a bit of Finney about him.”

Scott, who paints as a hobbyist, has seemingly been drawn to bigger and bigger canvases as he’s grown older. “Napoleon,” he says, required 900 personnel; “Gladiator II” took 1,200. He is, himself, a commander of armies. In Malta, Scott and his regular production designer, Arthur Max, erected enormous sets.

“We built Rome,” says Scott. “I discovered that you can have a lot of access, nice costumes and all blue screen. But in every shot you take — whether it’s (Scott holds his hands up for wide shots, over-shoulder shots and close-ups) you’re investing money on the blue. It’s more expensive to do that than to build it. So I built the Colosseum 40% full scale. It was cheaper to do that than blue screen.”

Far smaller productions have worn down other filmmakers who don’t match half the pace of Scott. But Scott, a self-described “war baby” born in 1937 whose father was a senior officer in the Royal Engineers, has showed no signs of slowing down, nor of fading ambition. Asked where he gets his drive, Scott responds: “DNA.”

“My mum was ferocious,” Scott says. “You have to stay kind of fit. And I embrace stress. If you don’t embrace stress, do not do the job. People get very stressed and frightened and I don’t. I’ve grown to it over the years to just embrace it and walk in and say, ‘Right, everybody over here. We’re going to do this.’ And they listen. Bearing in mind that I’m artistically driven and I’m blessed with a very good eye, the decision is everything. Make the bloody decision. Do not discuss it with everybody including the window cleaner where you’re going to put the camera.”

To Scott, his most formative training came in commercials. He and his brother, Tony Scott, started out with their film and commercial production company Ridley Scott Associates. Particularly in television, Scott got accustomed to shooting with multiple cameras rolling simultaneously. He didn’t make his first feature, 1977’s “The Duelist,” until he was 40. Now, on movies like “Gladiator,” Scott might have eight or 10 cameras rolling for a single scene.

“So I got used to scale,” says Scott. “By that time I had probably done 2,500 commercials. And when you’re doing a commercial for yourself, the company, you’re on your own clock. After 5 o’clock, you pay. So you’re constantly against time. I learned that better than any film school could teach you. On every second hand is a dollar sign.”

That kind of scale also comes with risk, of course. “Gladiator II” will open in theaters against Universal Pictures’ “Wicked,” another highly anticipated movie although one, like the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” showdown, with different and possibly complementary target audiences. Mescal has teased the moviegoing weekend as “Glicked.”

Scott remains optimistic about the movie business — even if his main concern is what it'll mean for the next mammoth project he undertakes.

“There have been a few combustions of big box office this year that gives a certain kind of movie a promise for financial return,” Scott says. “But the financial return — au courage d’autres — encourages the others. Because greed will always be in the front, right? Maybe the investors will say, ‘Maybe it can be me.’ That’s what we always hope for because I just love making movies. And the bigger the better.”

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Paul Mescal in a scene from "Gladiator II." (Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows director Ridley Scott, center, Paul Mescal on the set of "Gladiator II." (Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures via AP)

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy assured state election officials in a letter released Monday that he'll work with them to handle their warnings of problems with election mail delivery during the primary season, while insisting that the Postal Service will be ready for the flood of mail-in ballots ahead of the November election.

The Postal Service already dealt with most concerns raised by election officials, he said, after they warned that properly addressed election mail was returned — a problem that can cause voters to be automatically placed on inactive status — and that mail-in ballots were postmarked on time but arrived after election deadlines.

DeJoy said that training is already being beefed up for postal employees and that the Postal Service is already in constant contact with election officials and will work them to address quality problems that caused incorrect deliveries or mail to be returned to sender. He also said he'd work with them to avoid a repeat of “flawed ballot envelope designs," though many envelopes were already designed and printed, officials said.

The Postal Service also has teams in place to tackle mail flagged as “undeliverable as addressed,” or any other problem that might arise with election mail, DeJoy wrote.

The concerns were raised by the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors, even as former President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won in 2020 and seized upon the mail delivery troubles to sow doubts about the upcoming election. He repeated his claim Sunday on social media that the Postal Service is not up to the task.

In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, election officials reported sending just over 69 million ballots in the mail, a substantial increase from four years earlier.

While the numbers this year may be smaller, many voters have embraced mail voting and come to rely on it. And both Democrats and Republicans have launched efforts to push supporters to vote early, either in person or by mail to “bank” their votes before Election Day on Nov. 5. In a sign of how quickly Election Day is approaching, the first batch of mail ballots were sent last week to absentee voters in Alabama.

Steve Simon, president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, on Monday stood by his assessment that the Postal Service has been slow to respond to concerns. He said that localized problems can be easily addressed but that “larger issues still remain.”

“If the nation’s election officials felt these issues had been properly addressed with USPS staff over the last year, then there would have been no need for our letter,” he said, referring to the airing of concerns last week.

In his response, DeJoy acknowledged that a massive network reorganization caused some temporary problems but assured the two bipartisan groups that changes are being paused to avoid slowing election mail ahead of the November election.

He suggested that Postal Service's performance in past elections should speak for itself.

Postal Service officials said that nearly 98% of ballots were returned to election officials within three days and that 99.9% of ballots were delivered within seven days in the last presidential election — at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

“As demonstrated consistently in previous elections, election mail routinely outperforms our regular service performance due to our long-standing processes and procedures,” DeJoy wrote.

First-class mail is currently averaging 2.7 days for delivery, DeJoy said, even though the two groups wrote in a letter last week that some election officials received timely postmarked ballots after Election Day and outside the three to five business days Postal Service sets as the standard for first-class mail.

Nonetheless, DeJoy said, voters shouldn’t procrastinate with mail-in ballots this election season. Both the Postal Service and state election officials are urging anyone voting by mail to return their ballots well before Election Day or to use drop boxes where available.

Associated Press writers Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. Postal Service trucks park outside a post office in Wheeling, Ill., Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)