The people who saw Gladiator back in the year 2000 have great reviews about it because of the Colosseum, the costumes, the ferocious tigers and many other things related to the storytelling, which include amazing visual effects and well designed production.
More than twenty years later, precisely the directors of this film had to face tremendous difficulties: to create a sequel that would not only offer its fans the same aesthetics they have grown accustomed to but would also introduce new visual and thematic alternatives.
‘’Gladiator II” (coming soon to theatres on Nov 22) has its substance developed strenuously too, involves the commanding voices, highly structured sword fights with steady sequences and encourages you with intriguing combats shot in Coliseum X that incorporates a generating brutal theme like a segment with a rhinoceros and another with sharks.’
“It’s epic, more than epic” Sol illustrator Max Arthur ., who with director Ridley Scott and producer Douglas Wick forms the brain trust that worked on both films said, “Everything we did on the first one, was taken to a much greater size and scale.” Maxim continued, much of the production design in the movie comes from our thorough research he pursued the Museum of the Roman Ships of Fiumicino, Conservation Laboratories in Pompeii, and a number of Museums in Athens among other places.
They further looked at warship models at the British Museum in London and some pictorial works from military history books. But the film also takes some creative license for Scott designed a lot of images and scenes that he felt fit into the story. Scott would often picture a scene in his mind, draw it for his team, and have them recreate it on screen instead of relying on computers. Scott claims, “Even if I haven’t found the location, I’ll imagine the location and draw it. And then that location will be found that suffices for what I drew.” In the end Scott tells us that going to art school was one of the best things that happened in his life.
In an ambitious chapter of this work, the writers record confrontation taking place in the Colosseum after flooding with water. Two ships face each other: Many Roman soldiers occupy one, while a cadre of gladiators board the other, and the two ships are said to engage each other in battle, the sharks patrolling the waters below as the ships whizz past each other and collide into one another.
These ships were created to be as realistic as possible; Max reported that they were made between 55 and 65ft long and contained real masts, planked floors, iron nails along with tar caulking. The ships were initially made of wood and iron but the underlying surface was lightweight steel.
When assembled they were placed onto the two hydraulic remote controlled vehicles via a 120-foot-tall crane that contained dozens of wheels each to fall onto the ships. The film crew utilized these rolling platforms to move the ships around the arena.
The Colosseum set has also been used for aerial shooting of the two ships set in Malta, where the first “Gladiator” episode was shot. The shots were supposed to take place in the water but were taken on land and edited to make it appear as if water surrounded the environment.
“That’s why this time we thought it was better to do water work in dry land than to do it in wet land and at the same time waste time capturing the footage. So much advances have occurred between the first and this one that adding water in the post production is far easier than working in water”, said during the discussions decided Max.
The production progressed to a huge tank which was 8 feet deep and the size of a football pitch in order to film the thrilling moments of the naval combat such as the gladiators and soldiers in close quarters, some men falling off the ship and into waters full of sharks.
It was here that they constructed an artificial configuration of Ancient Rome’s amphitheater, complete with spouts in the shape of Neptune, the God of the sea, for the head of its coliseum basin which sddted over the Tank. The Spouts would then empty to the bottom of the tank into a submersible pump which circulated the water back to the spouts.
It was Scott who thought of putting the sharks in the water. Three years before the making of the movie, Scott mentioned that he had an experience that inspired him: ‘While filming ‘White Squall’ in a hotel in the Caribbean, he recalled, someone had thrown a six foot shark into the hotel swimming pool.’
‘They couldn’t get the shark out so this single shark had a pool all for itself,’ he commented.
Max remarked that there is no knowledge whether or not the Romans did put sharks in the Colosseum, however, it was intended to add tension to the scene and get the audience accustomed to the sight of the sharks underwater.
Scott too had annexed the wrestling of other gladiators with the introduction of new animals, and specifically the rhinoceros. As for the rhino – our production made a kind of frame and put leatherette on it, which was mounted on a small hydraulic row vehicle similar to those employed in бордеры. In another scene baboons are involved who are impersonated by stunt men dressed in black track suits with black painted faces. They were provided y short crutches simulating the forearms of the creatures.
“The idea was trying to give the audience the same thrill a Roman would have had watching it in the stands,” Wick said.
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