How long does it take to shoot an epic historical drama for Ridley Scott? As it turns out, a lot less time than we would have ever guessed. When CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast spoke to the iconic director of Alien and Blade Runner about the making of his Napoleon Bonaparte biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix, he revealed the film was shot in just two months we now know his next film, Gladiator 2, is on track to be filmed in even less time.
As Scott told ReelBlend’s hosts Sean O’Connell, Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy during their exclusive interview in Paris, France , it all comes down to the director opting for numerous cameras to be rolling at once when he films sequences. In his words:
I do everything with four cameras. So let’s say a scene schedule for a day, I’ll be finished by 11. Done. And with eight cameras, it’s fundamentally eight times faster. So, we did Napoleon in 61 days, as opposed to 100. I know people who do 150. And then [Gladiator 2], I’m doing right now in 52 days.
As Scott described while appearing on the podcast, he thinks of the scenes in his films in his head as “a geometric structure.” Once he has that figured out, he positions numerous cameras in the location to then knock out multiple coverage setups in what sounds like record time. The director also shared that it's even easier for him nowadays to employ this system because he can erase the cameras another camera may capture in the process. As Scott continued:
It’s knowing where to put your camera and that also has to go hand in hand with a very good cameraman who can cope with those eight angles. But, one thing is very simple about this: the key light is from one direction. And wherever you are, sometimes you’ll have the front light, sometimes side, sometimes backlight. So you just accept that, and you can always massage a shot into looking good.
While other directors might approach the coverage of a scene with doing a series of camera setups from various angles, Ridley Scott is shooting one scene with all of those angles factored in and set up across different locations on set instead. This method of filmmaking allowed the director to shoot Napoleon in 61 days (which has a theatrical runtime of 157 minutes and a four-hour director’s cut) and reportedly get the Gladiator sequel wrapped in just 52 days.
This information highly contrasts Scott’s experience making the first Gladiator film, where the opening scene, which was almost much different, reportedly took three weeks to film on its own. Scott sharing with ReelBlend how he shoots his latest historical epics is rather interesting. You can check out the full episode of ReelBlend below:
Gladiator 2 will continue the original's story over 20 years later, with Paul Mescal playing Lucius, who was once the young boy who befriended Russell Crowe’s Maximus before he died at the end of the film. Per Scott, Lucius has been “out in the wilderness” for years when the sequel begins. The Gladiator 2 cast also includes Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Joseph Quinn and May Calamawy.
Gladiator 2 is expected to come to theaters on November 22, 2024. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is in theaters now.
