The Irish premiere of Gladiator II, starring Paul Mescal, takes place at the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield tonight.
Gladiator II is a follow up to the hugely successful box office classic, which starred Russell Crowe as Maximus in 2000.
Crowe went on to pick up an Oscar for Best Actor, one of five Oscars won by the film, from 12 nominations.
The film will see Maynooth native Paul Mescal star as Maximus’ son Lucius, in a film which is set 15 years after his father’s death. This is also the first time that Mescal will be the central star of a movie.
In fact, last year, Russell Crowe gave Paul Mescal his blessing ahead of this film.
“I hear that young fella Paul is a good dude and I wish him the best of luck with it”, Crowe said. “I think where they’re picking the story up from, a young Lucius, stepping into the role of emperor, I think that’s a very smart idea within the world of the film that we created”.
Tough Challenge
Speaking recently, director Ridley Scott stated that it was still hugely enjoyable to work on this sequel.
“There’s a great deal of excitement about doing a film of this scale. You have to live through a great deal of stress. In fact, you’ve got to embrace stress! I do. It keeps me flying”, he said.
Despite this, Gladiator producer Derek Wicks admitted that creating this sequel was a tough challenge.
“The challenge facing us was to make a film that would grab an audience that has seen grand combat many times over. Whatever we created had to provide captivating new thrills – a true spectacle for the ages”, he said.
The trailer for Gladiator II was released back in September. You can check that out and Nova’s report on this here.