‘I created ‘perfect’ scene in Gladiator II that Ridley Scott couldn’t do in first film’

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures)

Gladiator II has arrived with all the fanfare you’d expect for a sequel to an epic 24 years in the making, set once more among the lavish riches – and brutal gladiatorial practices – of the Roman Empire.

While the cast has mostly changed to include stars of the moment Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, as well as scene-chewingly brilliant acting from Denzel Washington, what has stayed firmly the same is the feel of the film.

Much like the first Gladiator with Russell Crowe’s Maximus, this too has a gifted warrior (Mescal as Lucius) enslaved in the arena who ends up fighting on the empire’s biggest stage – inside the Colosseum.

And director Sir Ridley Scott is only interested in bringing bigger and better to the screen for his return to the territory – so our hero has bloodthirsty baboons, a rhino and sharks to fight instead of tigers.

We spend more time in the ring as well as on the battlefield (or seas, as it were), and to help Sir Ridley on the military side was consultant Paul Biddiss.

Over the past decade, the ex-soldier – who served 24 years with the Parachute Regiment – has worked his way up from an extra on George Clooney film The Monuments Men to running his own training company of advisors.

He already worked with Sir Ridley on his 2023 historical drama Napoleon, where he ensured his perfect drilling of extras landed him the coveted job on Gladiator II – and also helped create a scene that the legendary British filmmaker hadn’t been able to include in the previous film.

‘He walked out the tent and went straight up to me and said, “Paul, you’ll be so happy with how those soldiers look. You drilled them perfectly”,’ Biddiss recalls to Metro of his work on the complicated square formation required for Napoleon, which was his ‘nightmare moment’ on that project.

‘And I just smiled at him, put my hand out and went, “Oh, that’ll be Gladiator II then?”’ he laughs.

Luckily, this is the kind of ballsy move that charms Sir Ridley, with Biddiss confirming that he silently shook his hand and smiled before the offer formally came through later.

For Biddiss, the first thing to do – before he had even seen a script for Gladiator II – was to throw himself into researching Roman military warfare, meaning first stop: tactics.

(Picture: Cuba Scott/Paramount)

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount)

While a military consultant can of course advise from a position of complete confidence when it comes to modern warfare – and even more recent history – Gladiator II takes us back to the AD 200s. That could seem like a lot for a military consultant to have to school themselves on first, but Biddiss was actually surprised by the similarities he found.

‘I realised that the British Army, and in particular my regiment, adopted the training phases of the Roman soldier, which basically starts with mental and physical conditioning.’

Biddiss estimates he eventually trained as many as 2,000 extras across Morrocco, the UK and Malta – having been interrupted by the actors’ strike – instructing them in drills, marching formations and weapons training in order to convince as members of the Roman and Numidian armies, as well as Praetorians, the most elite unit who protected the emperor.

‘Everything they trained with was heavier than the actual weapons that they would use. And it’s a phrase that a lot of us use, which is train hard and fight easy,’ Biddiss explains of the Roman Army, the Paras – and his well-drilled extras.

The veteran is always prepared with ‘a few extra things in the bag’ in case his director wants them – and also creates videos ahead of time of his training so that they can understand what they’re looking at and what they want to ask for. This meant Sir Ridley was able to recognise the dense line formation Biddiss worked on which protected firing archers with shields in the boat during the Roman invasion of Numidia in the opening scenes. (‘Or as Ridley called it, armadillo formation. “I want an armadillo! Get me another armadillo.”’)

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount)

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount)

Sir Ridley also appears to have had a bag of tricks too, when Biddiss casually mentions that the Blade Runner filmmaker’s ‘good friend’ the King of Morocco provided his soldiers to swell the ranks of the Roman and Numidian extras they were training – because of course. And while there might have been a language barrier between the Moroccans and Biddiss and ‘we all got on well’ as serving and former members of the military.

Biddiss has worked with the likes of Guy Ritchie on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, as well as on films and TV shows including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Cyrano, 1917 and new Sky drama The Day of the Jackal. He prepares his crew meticulously but still mentions ensuring everyone is ‘fit and robust enough to work on a Ridley film because it’s hard work’.

I ask what specifically makes working on the legendary director’s movies challenging? It’s his use of 12 cameras, Biddiss explains, which means you ‘can’t get away’ with anything. He points to extras being asked to run in kit, which is hard work the first time, let alone the second or third take.

‘If one guy is slow because he can’t keep up, you’re going to catch that on the camera, it’s going to ruin a shot and then you’re going to have to do it again. And if you’ve got pyrotechnics involved, and you’ve got all the other bits and pieces, that’s a lot of money – maybe tens of thousands of pounds – for that one shot, which could be ruined because one guy was unfit.

(Picture: Cuba Scott/Paramount)

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount)

‘So it’s down to me, basically, to make sure that I’ve got the right guys.’

Luckily, he did this time round – which is what made Sir Ridley’s dream shot possible, one that the consultant believes the 86-year-old was unable to put in Gladiator last time. So a shot over 20 years in the making, you could say.

Biddiss calls it the circle of death, something ‘10 times harder’ than his nightmare moment on Napoleon. Here, Sir Ridley wanted a group of Praetorians to walk from the edge of the ring in the Colosseum – an oval – with precision timing, finishing together on a mark to form a perfect circle around Mescal’s Lucius and his mother Lucilla (returning star Connie Nielsen), as they face their fate.

‘I had to drill them and drill them and drill them, weeks in advance,’ Biddiss recalls of the fiendishly difficult task, figuring out the paces required compared to each man’s trajectory and height. He also had to make sure Mescal was clued in as well, and moving at the right pace to avoid any awkward bumping into him. Let’s also not forget those 12 cameras either, covering this from every possible angle.

(Picture: Paramount/YouTube)

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount)

Luckily, it was nailed on the first take and Biddiss remembers the triumphant ‘oh yes!’ that came from Sir Ridley, who called him over to say: ‘Look at this, that’s perfect. I love it.’

‘For me, that was the standout moment, because all those guys performed well,’ he recalls. ‘They did the job, and it was perfect.

‘I believe it’s something [Sir Ridley] wanted to do in the original Gladiator that he couldn’t do it, for whatever reason – I don’t know whether he couldn’t get someone to train – and so you just see them there in the circle already.’

The scene was specifically in the script. ‘So the pressure was on me to deliver, and luckily I did.’

Speaking of pressure, Biddiss says no one seemed too obviously concerned with trying to replicate – or better – Gladiator and the success it has enjoyed since its release in 2000 (five Oscars from 12 nominations, including the coveted best picture award, as well as an enduring popularity among its fans).

(Picture: Dreamworks/Universal Pictures)

It’s actually one of Biddiss’s favourite films too, but he insisted no one was thinking they’d ‘got to better the first film’. He sees the sequel as an ‘extension’ of the original Gladiator.

‘I think it enhances the first film personally, because when you watch it, knowing what was going to happen, you’re suddenly picking certain things up. I think there was something in there that [meant] there was always going to be a second film, he adds. ‘But it’s a Ridley Scott film, so there’s a lot of energy, and everyone wants to get it looking as perfect as possible. And that’s the reason why Ridley insists on everyone being on their game.’

He has praise for the Alien and Thelma & Louise director and how he treats his cast and crew because ‘if you mess up, he’ll let you know, but equally, if you do a good job, he’ll let you know as well’.

‘It’s very rare in many directors, actually – he’s very firm, but fair. But when you’re working for Ridley, you pull it out, 100%.’

We discuss the headlines already made by academics criticising the accuracy of Gladiator II, with sharks added to the waters of the naval battle in the Colosseum, but Biddiss isn’t fazed. For his part, there are far too many flags in the film’s final scenes, with the two forces massed outside Rome, but he appreciates that without them ‘you wouldn’t see the scale and depth of just how many people are there’.

(Picture: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures)

‘He’s got to tell a story. He’s painting a picture, and I’m there just to help him fill a few bits in on that canvas. But ultimately, it’s his picture.’

For Biddiss – who usually gets most of his negative feedback from nitpicking historical re-enactors – he knows what the purpose of Gladiator II: ‘We want to be entertained. We’re not coming for a history lesson.’

And that’s his hope for fans too.

‘Switch the brain off, get some popcorn and just be entertained. That’s what the film is all about, and that’s what gladiator the gladiator arena was all about.’

Gladiator II is in UK cinemas now. It releases in the US on Friday, November 22.

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