The paper a script is printed on can reveal much about its development. The iconic action film ‘Gladiator’ faced numerous revisions during its production, making it difficult to ensure everyone was on the same page—literally. Arthur Max, the production designer for both ‘Gladiator’ and its sequel, disclosed to The Post that the 2001 Oscar-winning film’s production team ran out of different colored papers to denote the latest draft of the screenplay.
In film and TV production, script changes are typically printed on different colored paper to indicate revisions. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) established a color code system with nine colors: white (initial draft), blue, pink, yellow, green, goldenrod, buff, salmon, and cherry. Goldenrod is a yellowish gold, and buff is a light brownish yellow. Most productions don’t reach the ninth revision, but ‘Gladiator’ was an exception.
Max described the daily rewrites and late-night script deliveries under cast and crew’s hotel room doors. Director Ridley Scott, who started filming with only about 20 pages, frequently altered the script whenever he had a new idea. This constant evolution led to the film breaking the color coding system. Production staff had to resort to creative solutions, such as adding colored stripes to reused colors to differentiate them.
Russell Crowe also commented on the chaotic script situation during ‘Gladiator’s filming. He mentioned starting with only 21 agreed-upon pages of a script that typically runs between 103 to 110 pages. By the time they reached their second location in Morocco, they were still catching up. Scott even had to give extra days off to crew members because the next scene’s pages were either not written or finalized. Crowe reportedly walked off set at least twice due to disliked revisions.
‘Gladiator’ is now available to stream on Hulu, Paramount+, Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, and the Roku Channel. Meanwhile, ‘Gladiator II,’ featuring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington, is currently in theaters.
Source link: https://nypost.com
