It all makes sense now. A few days ago, Paramount leaked to Deadline about how their jaws dropped while watching early footage of Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator 2” — the claim was that they were “blown away” by the film. “
A THR report is now saying that Scott’s sequel actually had its budget “balloon” from $165 million to a whopping $310 million. That is justifiably insane. The pieces goes on to describe Paramount execs as feeling “terribly vexed” by the whole ordeal.
“It’s a runaway,” says one source. “It’s not being managed.” Of course,
the strikes accounted for some of that money as the shutdown was costing Paramount $600,000 a week, which roughly tallied to around $10 million in losses once production restarted in December. However, that’s not enough to justify a budget that skyrocketed to over $300 million. It turns out that there were accidents on the set, complaints about animal abuse and walkouts:
A stunt gone wrong in June sent four crewmembers to the hospital with non-life-threatening burn injuries. Then in July, PETA sent an open letter to Scott filled with “whistleblower” reports about horses and monkeys being abused on the set — reports that sources close to the production deny, noting that the Humane Society was on-site during filming.
That budget still doesn’t make sense. I bet we’re going to learn more details in the coming months about what else went wrong with the production. You don’t get to have your budget nearly double just because of PETA and an on-set accident.
On-paper, “Gladiator 2” could be top notch. You have Scott directing, David Scarpa writing and a cast that includes Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Connie Nielsen. It’s the sequel to an Oscar-winning, and much beloved, blockbuster. But did we really need it?
Scott is a very hit and miss director. For every good film he makes, he produces two or three mediocre ones. He’s still directed more than a handful of great films, but there should always be caution when it comes to whatever new film he releases. Which leaves us intrigued by what he might have in store with this sequel.
“Gladiator 2” is currently scheduled for a November 22, 2024 release.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.