Special Effects Supervisor Neil Corbould of Industrial Light & Magic, an Oscar® winner for Gladiator, has a long history with Ridley Scott. They began their work on the sequel, he recalls, as they always do by discussing how much farther they could push the possibilities of cinema. The film’s most astonishing action sequences that included a rampaging rhino and barmy baboons came together through a combination of practical sets supplemented by special and visual effects.
One scene they had been unable to realize in the past finally came to life, Corbould says. A huge, heavily armed gladiator mounted on a rhinoceros does battle with a group of men. “We learned a lot from the showmen of the ancient arena as we researched the first movie,” says producer Douglas Wick. “As we contemplated a sequel, we reached back 2000 years for guidance on how to top ourselves. They had great answers. Enter the rhino.”
Scott wanted to stage a man-versus-rhino sequence back in 2000, but it was too dangerous to do with a real rhino and too expensive at the time to do with CGI. Although it was never filmed, the CGI test for the sequence was included on the film’s DVD release and has become a legend among Gladiator fans.
“I found some old storyboards of the rhino fight,” Corbould says. “When I sat down with Ridley to talk about this film I said, ‘I’ve got something to show you,’ and pulled them out. And he said, ‘Let’s do it this time.’”
Building the oversized creature was a joint effort between Corbould and Prosthetics Designer Conor O’Sullivan. “We made a mechanical rhinoceros that could shake its head, flick its nose up in the air, and move its eyes and ears,” says Corbould. “That was then enhanced with visual effects. We could literally drive it around the Colosseum like a go-kart!”
A skin made of thick plastic fashioned with an AI cutting device created a perfect replica of a rhino with all the wrinkles, according to Scott. That was draped over the frame that became the rhino. “Later we added the legs,” says Scott. “It was not an easy process, but it looks great.”
Scott asked the sound team to make the sound of the rhino be both as authentic and as terrifying as possible. “Rhinos make a surprisingly wide variety of sounds,” Bucher says. “They grunt, growl, moo, pant, squeal, scream, and trumpet. He asked to have all the different sounds played very loud during that battle, so actors could feel the power of the rhino.”
And it was not just the rhino that the sound team gave voice. “There were also baboons, elephants, camels, and bison just to start,” says Collinge. “We manipulated actual animal sounds to highlight their aggression and power. For the baboons, we morphed chimp calls and then combined them with the screeches of other animals to create a unique and very intimidating sound.”
But it was rampaging rhino AND barmy baboons that the director wanted as the real-life gladiators famously fought a variety of wild beasts in the ring. While no actual animals were harmed in the making of Gladiator II, one of the film’s highlights is a mano-a-mano brawl between men and baboons. “Many of the images in the movie came directly from Ridley’s brain,” explains Wick. “We’d be in a meeting discussing some story problem when Ridley would divine a solution. He thinks visually. We were pondering how to dramatize Lucius’ anger as his superpower in the arena. Ridley started to sketch Lucius in mortal battle with a ferocious baboon. Lucius traumatizes the creature by biting deeply into its arm and spits out the furry flesh. Suddenly there’s a new alpha in the fight.”
Scott came up with the idea based on a video of a real-life baboon attack on tourists in a parking lot in South Africa. “It was absolute chaos,” Scott remembers. “Baboons are carnivores. They will attack people and they’re about 40 pounds of solid muscle. They can rip a person’s arm off.”
The director envisioned a troop of 12 starving baboons in the arena with a group of newcomers to Rome. The surviving men would become gladiators. “I told our stunt coordinator, Nikki Berwick, that I was going to need some short people — no taller than five foot five. I wanted them all in black with masks painted to look like baboons.”
Because baboons run on all fours, Berwick, the film’s Stunt Coordinator, gave each performer short crutches that fit under the armpit to approximate a baboon’s gait. She says it is a pleasure working with the director, who always has clear ideas about what he wants from the stunts. “Ridley understand what he is looking for in action sequences,” says Berwick. “I love that he gets involved and is present in the designing of the action.”
In this case, he got exactly what he was looking for. “We went into a full-bore battle between men and apes,” Scott remembers. “Then we transformed the stunt people into realistic baboons with CGI. The baboon leader is based on one of the real baboons in the video. He had alopecia, no hair. You could see how muscular they really were. I said, that’s my hero baboon.”
…….and that’s how Gladiator II got its rampaging rhino and barmy baboons!
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