Ridley Scott, 85, is a workaholic. You’d think he’d want to rest during the strike, not to mention, after having had production halted on “Gladiator 2.” But, no, Scott has been very busy.
He’s told multiple outlets that during the SAG-AFTRA shutdown he was editing his four-hour cut of “Napoleon,” storyboarding his next film, a Western, and confirmed that he’s already edited 90 minutes of footage of the ‘Gladiator’ sequel (“I got another 90 minutes to go.”)
About that mysterious western, set to be his next film, Scott tells deadline that he expects to shoot it next March. Although he is keeping the details to himself, he says it’s period, with a script like “perfectly distilled liquor, and two stars ready to join him” in what he says is a “bucket list project” for him.
Who are we kidding here? It’s gotta be his adaptation of S. Craig Zahler‘s Western novel “Wraiths of the Broken Land.” The project was announced in May 2016. Scott would be re-teaming with “The Martian” writer Drew Goddard for this one.
Here’s the synopsis:
“Wraiths of the Broken Land,” published in 2013, is set in Mexico around 1900 with two sisters forced into prostitution at a gentlemen’s club. The sisters’ two brothers and their father attempt to rescue them through their outlaw gang which also includes a former slave, an Indian and a brutal gunman (or “wraith”) who is the tactical leader.
I’ll have some additional Scott news later today. There’s this great interview that’s just been published and it has some really wonderful anecdotes from him, including about the two chats he had with Stanley Kubrick in 1980.