Ridley Scott signs Harry Gregson-Williams for 'Gladiator 2', making it their seventh collaboration

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Harry Gregson-Williams is set to join Ridley Scott once again for his latest project 'Gladiator 2.'

The flick is scheduled for November 22, which will be released after 24 after sweeping the Oscars.

Harry Gregson-Williams says he learnt from Han Zimmer

The protege of legendary composer ‘Hans Zimmer’ has worked on six previous movies with the 86-year-old. They include ‘The Martian', ‘Prometheus', ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings', ‘Kingdom of Heaven', ‘The Last Duel’, and ‘House of Gucci.’

Interestingly, Gregson-Williams has spent years as a protege of Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer who bagged the award for ‘Gladiator’ back in the day, reports Variety.

David Scarpa has done the screenplay for the sequel which focuses on Lucius, the nephew of Commodus. He is a grown man now. Paul Mescal is the lead which also includes stars like Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Derek Jacobi, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, and Pedro Pascal.

Scott is also producing and is joined by Michael Pruss via Scott Free, Douglas Wick, and Lucy Fisher via Red Wagon Entertainment with David Franzoni, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Raymond Kirk, and Aidan Elliot exec producers.

Gregson-Williams has been part of many successful projects such as ‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget', ‘The Meg’, ‘Mulan’, ‘The Gilded Age', ‘The Equalizer’, ‘Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason', ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, and all three ‘Shrek’ films.

Scott’s most recent project ‘Napoleon’ was a massive success, reaching $200 million worldwide. The film stars Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix as a notorious French leader. However, his take on Phoenix's ‘Joker’ didn’t go too well with the latter's fans.

In an interview with Deadline, he lauded Phoenix's portrayal, saying, "I was blown away by his outrageous film 'Joker.' I didn't like the way it celebrated violence, but Joaquin was remarkable."

For bringing Phoenix to the table for his flick, the director said, "I thought he’d be an amazing asset to Napoleon, [not only creatively] also in a commercial sense. There were only two actors I had in mind for the role. I won’t mention the other one.”

In an earlier statement to Empire magazine, Scott revealed his inspiration for casting Phoenix, saying, “I’m staring at Joaquin and saying, ‘This little demon is Napoleon Bonaparte.’ He looks like him.”