Entertainment
Naked baboons and bloodthirsty sharks? Why not? says 'Gladiator II' VFX team
With “Gladiator II,” Ridley Scott returns to the bloody world of his Oscar-winning swords-and-sandals epic. Starring Paul Mescal as Lucius, a young prisoner turned gladiator, this sequel goes bigger and wilder than its predecessor, including monkeys, rhinos and even sharks within its grand action sequences.
To re-create the epic scope of the original film and reimagine it for 2024 audiences, Scott reunited with many of his longtime collaborators. That included special effects supervisor Neil Corbould. Joining him was visual effects supervisor Mark Bakowski.
Unlike Corbould, who’s worked with Scott for decades (he won an Oscar for “Gladiator” and was nominated just last year for the director’s “Napoleon”), Bakowski was excited to work with the famed filmmaker for the first time.
“He’s nuts,” Bakowski says with a laugh via Zoom, about the English director. “But obviously in an excellent way. He shoots quickly, and he likes to move. He’s like, ‘Get me going.’ It’s all rush, rush, rush. It’s great. But it took some getting used to.
“I heard him shout once, ‘I want four donkeys (there might have been a swear word in there) and I want them now!’” Bakowski recalls. “And somehow they turned up.”
Scott’s attention to detail went hand in hand with an instinctual approach to decisions big and small alike. Bakowski points to the choice to include baboons with alopecia in a key scene where Lucius first proves himself a worthy fighter in front of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a conniving former slave with wild ambitions for the Roman throne.
“They were showing Ridley the baboon because it was an interesting anatomical structure,” Bakowski recalls. “The idea was just to go look at the muscles and sinews that would be a good reference for us when we build it.”
But Scott was immediately taken by this hairless primate, insisting it be the creature Lucius fends off with his bare hands. That scene is but one example where “Gladiator II” used visual effects (and a number of 6-foot-tall stuntmen who stood in for those menacing baboons, a challenge in itself that Bakowski’s team had to contend with) to create the kind of set piece that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago.
Yet “Gladiator” still loomed large in the eyes of all involved — especially when it came to redesigning the film’s most iconic location: the Colosseum.
“When we started, we chatted with this professor of history,” says Bakowski. “He showed us what, according to his interpretation, the Colosseum should be. So we matched the Colosseum to his design. Then we started looking at it in shots, and it didn’t look anything like ‘Gladiator.’ It looks completely different. Basically, it might be right, but it just didn’t look as cool.”
The choice was simple: Lucius would battle in the same Colosseum Russell Crowe’s Maximus had fought in two decades before. In the end, the built set looked almost identical to the one constructed for the 2000 film.
It’s there where Bakowski saw firsthand how a master storyteller like Scott orchestrated some of the film’s most complicated sequences.
“He sets it up like a big symphony,” Bakowski says. “And then sometimes a scene will just roll, like the ship battle. He would roll for minutes upon minutes at a time with, let’s say it’s 10, 12 cameras. He sets up this kind of event, kind of like a little version of a battle. And all these cameras in there just record it.”
“Sometimes a scene will just roll, like the ship battle. He would roll for minutes upon minutes at a time with, let’s say it’s 10, 12 cameras,” visual effects supervisor Mark Bakowski says of “Gladiator II” director Ridley Scott.
(Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures)
That battle takes place in a flooded Colosseum filled with bloodthirsty tiger sharks. There, Lucius and his fellow gladiators must mount a full-scale attack on a warring ship for the entertainment of thousands of Romans watching, including its unhinged sibling emperors, Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger).
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bakowski says. “It’s quite close in terms of the energy. It’s not crafted to a lens. The lenses all fit around the action.”
The crackling authenticity such shots create proved a welcome challenge for the entire “Gladiator II” crew. Especially because the original plan for how that naval battle was to be shot had to be scrapped.
“The actors’ strike happened right in the middle of shooting,” Bakowski notes. “We had this week and a half where all the actors had gone, but the stunties were still there because they weren’t SAG. So we had this time. And Ridley was like, ‘You know what we’ll do? We’ll shoot the Colosseum naval battle.’”
Except the water tank the special effects team was hoping to use for the sequence wasn’t ready. If they were to shoot that battle, they’d have to do so knowing that all the water would have to be added in postproduction. Which is exactly what they did.
The finished sequence required artfully stitching together shoots in four separate locations that took place both before and after the strike — some with in-camera water effects and some in completely dry conditions.
Such an outlandish spectacle captures how “Gladiator II” doesn’t merely retread what had come before. There’s a boldness to it that builds on Scott’s storied legacy.
“Technology has moved on,” as Bakowski puts it. “We can do more. We’re doing a lot more shots — 10, 12 times as many shots as the first movie. The action is different. But hopefully, the spirit of the original movie is there, and hopefully we’re honoring the amazing achievement that it was.”
Entertainment
Stagecoach 2026: How to watch Friday’s livestream with Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman
Choosin’ to stay home instead of trekking out to Indio for this weekend’s Stagecoach festival? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to listen to all the country music your heart desires. You can get your country heartbreak on with Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman and Cody Johnson, and then rock out with Counting Crows. If you prefer EDM, you can catch Diplo and Dillstradamus (Dillon Francis and Flosstradamus) as Friday’s closing acts.
The festival will be livestreamed on Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Video and Twitch beginning at 3 p.m. On Sirius XM’s The Highway (channel 56), you can listen to exclusive interviews and live performances along with a special edition of the Music Row Happy Hour. The station Y’Allternative will also be covering the festival on Friday evening.
Here are updated set times for the Stagecoach livestream Friday performances (times presented are PDT):
Channel 1
3:05 p.m. Noah Rinker; 3:25 p.m.; Adrien Nunez; 4 p.m. Ole 60; 4:25 p.m. Avery Anna; 5 p.m. Chase Rice; 5:55 p.m. Nate Smith; 6:50 p.m. Ella Langeley; 7:50 p.m. Bailey Zimmerman; 8:55 p.m. the Red Clay Strays; 10 p.m. Cody Johnson; 11:30 p.m. Diplo
Channel 2
3:05 p.m. Neon Union; 3:25 p.m. Larkin Poe; 4 p.m. Marcus King Band; 4:50 p.m. Lyle Lovett; 5:35 p.m. BigXthaPlug; 6:30 p.m. Noah Cyrus; 7 p.m. Wynonna Judd; 8 p.m. Counting Crows; 8:50 p.m. Sam Barber; 10 p.m. Dan + Shay; 10:45 p.m. Diplo featuring Juicy J; 11:05 p.m. Rebecca Black; 11:45 p.m. Dillstradamus
Sirius XM Music Row Happy Hour
1 p.m. Avery Anna; 2 p.m. Nate Smith; 2:30 p.m. Josh Ross; 3 p.m. Cody Johnson; 3:30 p.m. Gabriella Rose; 5:15 p.m. Nate Smith; 7:50 p.m. Bailey Zimmerman; 9:30 p.m. Cody Johnson; 11 p.m. Diplo
Sirius XM Y’Allternative
5 p.m. Ole 60; 6 p.m. Larkin Poe; 7 p.m. Marcus King Band; 8 p.m. Sam Barber
Movie Reviews
Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant – HorrorFuel.com: Reviews, Ratings and Where to Watch the Best Horror Movies & TV Shows
Forget the “video game movie” curse; The Mortuary Assistant is a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
Entertainment
Former Live Nation executive says he was fired after raising ‘financial misconduct’ concerns
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
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