Christopher Nolan has named Gladiator 2 as his favourite film of 2024, hailing it as “jaw-dropping” and “masterful”.
READ MORE: ‘Gladiator 2’ review: back to Rome for Paul Mescal’s Colosseum-sized sequel
The Oppenheimer director picked Ridley Scott‘s sequel as part of Variety’s list of directors’ top movies of 2024.
“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,” he wrote.
Rather than criticise some of the film’s historical inaccuracies, Nolan defended them adding: “Scott knows we’re not there for insights into Roman culture; we’re there to see our own dark desires at a comfortable remove. But he’s far too experienced a director to get caught making parallels with our time. He lets the world of Gladiator II speak for itself, once again showing us who we are simply by inviting us to enjoy the crazy inflationary ride.”
Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal in ‘Gladiator 2’. CREDIT: Paramount Pictures
He continued: “Why are there sharks in the coliseum? Because we demand them, and Scott masterfully gives them to us. As he reveals how the games are used to manipulate public opinion, we can’t help but see shadows of our own public arena projected onto the sand.”
Nolan went on to praise Scott’s action sequences and his filming style in the movie.
He added: “Scott raises the game with the staging of his action – his incredible, hyper-observant, multi-camera mise-en-scène (so different to the original) masterfully wrestles the action into clear and jaw-dropping sequence after sequence.
“The effect is not just to entertain, but to drive us towards awareness of the movie’s themes. Few filmmakers have ever worked so invisibly on multiple levels. In films from Blade Runner to Thelma And Louise to Gladiator II, the visual density of Scott’s art serves as foil for his underlying thematic clarity.”
Currently, Nolan is working with Universal on an unnamed film coming out in 2026. It’s set to star the likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron and Anne Hathaway. He recently turned down the chance to return to Warner Bros., rejecting a seven-figure cheque and a return of the Tenet fees he waived.
Elsewhere, Paul Mescal recently addressed the possibility of returning for Gladiator 3, saying he would be “massively down” to star in it.
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