Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan revealed that Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II has taken the top spot in the list of his favorite films of 2024. While opening up about Scott’s movie during Variety’s Actors on Actors segment, the Oppenheimer director claimed that the Paul Mescal starrer was one of the long-awaited sequels, which worked as part two of the franchise while also refreshing the memory of the previous one.
The film, released in November, was declared a hit at the box office, while the critics, too, heaped praises on the movie. During the segment, the filmmaker went on to write, “Like the best long-awaited sequels, Gladiator II must be a remake and sequel in one, and it’s testament to Scott’s brilliance that he manages to balance the individual pathos of the original with the expansionist demands of the sequel’s central theme, bringing a lifetime of experience in controlling tone.”
Meanwhile, the storyline of Gladiator II revolved around Mescal’s character, who played the role of Lucius. The character entered the Colosseum to avenge the death of his loved one.
Amidst the lauds, the viewers of the film pointed out a few flaws in the cinematic piece. A fan stated that Denzel Washington’s character of Maximus uses the term “hose him down.”
However, in the era in which the narrative has been set up, hoses were not yet invented. Defending the director’s work in the film, Nolan said, “Scott knows we’re not there for insights into Roman culture; we’re there to see our own dark desires at a comfortable remove.”
He further added, “Why are there sharks in the Colloseum? Because we demand them, and Scott masterfully gives them to us.”
At the end of his review of the film, the Interstellar filmmaker revealed that throughout his career in filmmaking, Scott has not been acknowledged as much.
On the work front, Christopher Nolan is working on an untitled film alongside Matt Damon, while Ridley Scott’s upcoming projects are not yet known.
ALSO READ: Is Denzel Washington’s Gladiator II Character Based On Real Roman History? Here’s What Reports Claim
