Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531774
G L A D I A T O R 2 | P E R S P E C T I V E 3 5 Filming resumed on January 8, 2024. We had a few interiors as cover sets still to do but that took only a week or so as fast as Ridley works. That left only scenes that were all exteriors. Finishing off the final sets, including building an enormous 10-meter-high ancient arch straddling over an actual public road in the middle of a magnificent valley landscape became not only the dramatic final battle scene between our two main protagonists, but also our battle with the elements. We had high winds and rainstorms that so hindered our progress to the point that we resorted to prefabricating the entire set piece in an enormous warehouse in the Grand Harbor of Valletta as a gigantic "Lego" kit of parts and assembling it over a weekend just before filming it on the last two days of the shoot. Miraculously as is usual with Ridley's luck, we got some decent light at critical moments and finished shooting and striking the set just before our road closure permit ran out. We wrapped the entire film in only forty-nine days, a week ahead of schedule. "All's well that ends well." ADG C. SENATE INTERIOR. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN MESSING. D. INTERIOR SENATE. PRODUCTION STILL. E. HOD SCULPTOR JAMES DEAN FINISHING IONIC CAPITAL CLAY MODEL FOR THE IMPERIAL PALACE. F. ANCIENT ARCH ON ROAD TO ROME. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY KIM FREDERIKSEN. G. ANCIENT ARCH IN PROGRESS. SET PHOTO. C E D F G