Ridley Scott has become “lazy” and “rushes” to get things done, according to his Gladiator 2 cinematographer.
READ MORE: ‘Gladiator 2’ review: back to Rome for Paul Mescal’s Colosseum-sized sequel
John Mathieson, who worked with Scott on both his Gladiator films, told the DocFix podcast back in March that Scott’s filming method has become “lazy”, with the director now “rushing” to complete projects.
He went on to claim that the director had “changed” and was now “quite impatient” on set, which he felt had a detrimental effect on the finished production. Scott’s last two films, Gladiator 2 and Napoleon have both received mixed reviews from critics.
The film was awarded three stars from NME: “If you loved Gladiator, it’s odds-on you’ll enjoy this too. It’s got all of the same exciting bits – swordfighting, rousing speeches, nasty poshos getting what they deserve,” Alex Flood wrote.
“The problem is that’s all it gives you. You want to feel like you’re watching Maximus lift off his helmet and deliver that iconic monologue for the first time again. You want the thrill of a core memory being unlocked. You want to know you’ll be quoting Mescal’s lines to your mates in the pub for the next 10 years. Gladiator 2, piously respectful as it is, can only offer a faded memory of that experience. There was a dream that was Rome – and this is kind of it.”
Mathieson told the podcast that Scott now shoots scenes with multiple cameras, rather than just one, resulting in less attention to detail.
“It’s really lazy,” Mathieson continued. “It’s the CG [computer graphic] elements now of tidying-up, leaving things in shot, cameras in shot, microphones in shot, bits of set hanging down, shadows from booms. And they just said [on Gladiator II], ‘Well, clean it up.’
“He is quite impatient so he likes to get as much as he can at once,” Mathieson said of Scott’s use of multiple cameras. “It’s not very good for cinematography,” he explained, saying it means you “can only light from one angle”.
He added: “Look at his older films and getting depth into things was very much part of lighting. You can’t do that with a lot of cameras but he just wants to get it all done.”
“Having lots of cameras I don’t think has made the films any better…It’s a bit rush, rush, rush. That’s changed in him. But that’s the way he wants to do it and I don’t like it and I don’t think many people do, but people love his films and he’s Ridley Scott and can do what he wants,” Mathieson continued.
“People want to shoot multi cameras because they get lots of performances and they put lots of people in,” he added. “But there’s not the care.”
“Now it is this thing of ‘generally covering stuff’ rather than me being the cook cooking you something wonderful in my kitchen downstairs,” he said. “You just go to the supermarket and get one of those really big trolleys and you just put your arm on the shelf and just chuck all that stuff in and we’ll sort it out later.”
Paul Mescal in ‘Gladiator 2’. CREDIT: Paramount Pictures
In other news, the release of Gladiator 2 and Wicked hasn’t had the same impact as last year’s Barbenheimer phenomenon at the cinema, but it has breathed new life into the box office with huge takings.
With a combined $270million (£214.6milion) in worldwide ticket sales over the weekend, it was the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2. It was also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.
Jon M. Chu’s film debuted with $114million (£90.6million) domestically and $164.2million (£130.5million) globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates (via The Guardian).
Gladiator 2 meanwhile, opened with $55.5million (£44.1million) domestically and it added $50.5million (£40.1million) internationally.
It was hoped that the Glicked effect, would match the Barbenheimer phenomenon but experts already said over the weekend that may well not have been the case.
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