Man... this movie is looking goooooood. I can not wait to see this thing. If the script is as good as Moriarty says it is... If Ridley can direct it as well as we know he can... And if Russell Crowe can be an absolute badass... Well, then this movie may be uber-cool. Let's hope... our spies in the UK spied these pics, and Mungus sent the article text from THE DAILY MAIL for all of you non-UK-ers to look at. This first pic you can click on for a bigger version...
I just thought you might be interested in this article from today's UK paper, The Daily Mail. Quite a bit of information and a couple of good photos.
The article:
"The Roman Empire lives on in woodlands in Surrey that resound to the crash of timber, the neighing of horses and the shouts of 700 warlike local citizens. Saving the Forestry Commission a denarius or two, Steven Spielberg's film-makers have won permission to clear a mile-square plantation of pines to stage battle scenes for the hoped-for epic movie Gladiator
The wood at The Bourne, near Farnham, has been transformed into the banks of the Danube in AD 180. Watched from a hilltop by members of Spielberg's Dreamworks production company, hundreds of locally employed extras have swopped pin-striped suits for the tunics and battle gear of Ancient Rome.
Nostrils flaring, horses gallop to and fro carrying Roman warriors, while cohorts of foot soldiers hide with their battle emblems behind barriers of evilly sharpened stakes.
'The woodland is supposed to be reminiscent of Germany in AD 180,' explained one member of the production crew. 'The Germans are fighting off invading Romans.' The £50 million film is being directed by Ridlley Scott, director of Blade Runner, Alien and Thelma And Louise, and stars Oliver Reed as Proximo, trainer of gladiators, and LA Confidential star Russell Crowe as the Roman general Maximus.
Crowe, who is in a part apparently originally earmarked for Tom Cruise, has been sharpening his sword skills in the Surrey forests by pretending to behead a hapless German. On horseback, he is accompanied by an alsatian dog made to look like a wolf. Other parts in the film are taken by footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones, Amistad star Djimon Hounsou and the late River Phoenix’s brother Joaquin. Nicole Kidman has been tipped for the main female role.
In the meantime, as rows of canvas tents are raised where trees used to be and chain-mail clad soldiers trip over ground that is frost-laden one day and sludge-filled the next, It is the local £80-a-day extras who have stolen the scene. So far, Ian Powell, 37, recruited just before Christmas at a mass audition in Farnham, has been in action both as a Roman and a German. A former insurance man, who gave up his job for a career in films, he was given special archery lessons at Shepperton Studios before being allowed to unleash fire arrows across the barrricades.
‘By the end of last week the Romans had advanced a further 200 yards, holding up their shields to form a defensive wall,’ he said, entering enthusiastically into the part. ‘The Germans tried to force them back by firing flaming arrows at them.’
His big film break has seen him rising at 4.3Oam to travel the few miles from tranquil Farnham to the bloodthirsty battle cries of The Bourne’s wood.
‘Once on the set they give you a payment chit, put on your uniform and smother you with mud and make-up,’ he said. ‘You then get a cup of coffee before being picked up by an old army truck and driven to the set for breakfast.’
The film-makers, and for that matter the extras, have been at pains to discount local rumours that washing has been banned in an effort to get that Roman/Germanic lived-in look. Some locals, however, have complained that the Invaders have used up precious local water supplies both to slake the thirst of the cast and put out the raging fires of battle.
It is hoped that the film, which will play to a backdrop of music by Chariots Of Fire composer VangeIis, will capture at least some of the atmosphere of the old classics such as Ben-Hur and Spartacus. ‘A decent old Rome film hasn’t been made for, what, 30 years,' Spielberg says.
The plot is that the new Roman emperor Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix, strips Maximus of his rank, forcing him to tight as a gladiator for his freedom and the future of Rome.
'It is an epic tale set in various locations around the Roman Empire,’ said a spokesman.
By the time the film is finished, the scenes in Farnham will form a small part of the opening stage-setting. And by the time it is released, new saplings will have been planted on the make-believe battlefields.
Meanwhile the Surrey Romans can only sit back and admire the film-makers’ art.
‘One thing that stayed with me,’ said lan Powell, ‘was the result of RidIey Scott’s passion for back-lit scenes. Towards the end of one day’s filming, a legion of soldiers was filmed advancing up a hill. The scene was back-lit by brilliant sunshine, so the soldiers were in silhouette.’
Steven Spielberg says he chose to 'veni,vidi,vici’ in Britain because of tax breaks and the availability of enthusiastic local talent. It is formula he chose with great success when he made the Oscar-nominated Saving Private Ryan in Hatfield, Herffordshire, and County Wexford, Ireland.
Last night the days of the Romans in Britain were definitely numbered. Filming is due to be complete by the end of the month when the scene will switch to Malta. There, 28,000 extras and a replica ot the Colosseum await."
Hope this is of interest.
Mungus
