Written by Christian McWilliams on Feb 27, 2025. Posted in Contributors

LM Diaries: Fort Ricasoli for Gladiator II

Supervising location manager Christian McWiliams, started working in locations in 1991, spanning a number of major film and television projects. Scouting in the UK and abroad, with speciality working in Malta and Morocco, McWilliams possesses a keen eye for detail and strong industry connections. Recently bringing his expertise to the set of Gladiator 2  The Location Guide has been given a little insight into the magic behind his recent venture.

 

 

Ancient Rome must have been a wonderful place, and walking into a majestic street in 2023 in Malta at Fort Ricasoli for Gladiator 2 transported me there.

 

Gladiator II production had shut down due the Hollywood strikes but after the sets moth-balled and basked in the Mediterranean sun, it all started to back to life. Crew, trucks, camera cranes, wind machines, hundreds of extras, it was breathtaking to walk into that world, and look on as chaos and madness was silenced, and the first AD Ben Burt said these immortal words: "Turnover".

 

 

I had been brought to Malta by the Maltese producer Winston Azzopardi, who was faced with no local location crew as all the Maltese location teams had taken another TV job during the strikes and were now not available. I hurriedly assembled a Maltese team from previous jobs, with varying degrees of inexperience , and called two Brits for backup, Curtis Burrell and Johnny Hopkins.

 

Whilst the main location for the end sequence had fallen through, a new location at Mizieb was proposed and needed an extended road closure. Ridley had written new scenes, and new locations were needed but there was no time and no money. It was not going to be a holiday. It would a huge challenge and great honour, and we had to get cracking.

 

For the first recce, I was standing with 45 crew members who had been on the movie from day 1 and I was left feeling like a spare wheel.

 

 

Ridley gets out of his BMW, "Bloody hell Christian good to see you"

 

I felt my confidence return, I had worked on Body Of Lies in Morocco a few years before and I had no idea if the great man would remember me, but he did, a nice start.

 

"We were going to build a river here, build a huge arch here and VFX need to CGO Rome on that hilltop, the script calls for 10,00 extras. Any issues?”, Neil Corbould, his long-time Oscar winning Bafta winning SFX coordinator piped up,

 

"How long is the river, how wide and how deep is it Ridley. Can VFX help and extend it , does Denzel have to go under the water?”

 

 

The crew got to work, a plan was made, my work began, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I had worked on three huge films in Malta World War Z and 13 Hours. It’s an amazing place to work, the Maltese love the cinema and it’s so small, so everyone knows everyone ,

 

I have met the Prime Minister before, been invited by the Chief of police to attend events, closed all the major arteries on the Island, and closed a runway at the airport; there is nothing that cannot be done in Malta. The beer is cheap and the Sicilian restaurants are amazing. Lobster spaghetti, Calamari stem, rabbit tagine. And you can swim every morning in the Med.

 

I met the Unit team, a core of amazing Brits and Maltese. Stories were shared of Ridley’s horse box. Were the stories true? Were there really 45 people in the team?  Why were they all working 7 days a week?

 

 

They gave me their time sheets and started explaining, they were all fried from the main shoot. They climbed a mountain every day, with enormous logistics, lots of people, and not enough toilets. Some had two phones and both were ringing all the time.

 

The schedule came out and the prep period and dressing would go on over Christmas and in the new year. Seven more weeks of shooting, six locations and four to be found. Blimey.

 

 

 

I had worked on some large productions before, they are very different to anything normal. You need to be in four places at once, wear different hats, try and make sense of insanity and at the same time prepare locations well so that an invasion into a small community can be managed and pass without incident. Press were on every corner, waiting for a slip up to be able to create an ugly headline to feed off.

 

Beaches , Castles , Forts , Tunnels, the Grand Harbour, stunning landscapes, were shot and given the immortal Ridley Scott treatment. Malta has another amazing film in its CV. For such a small island they can pack a lot in.

 

 

Fast forward seven weeks .....

 

A two week shoot in Morocco with five months prep, an 11 weeks shoot in Malta, then a strike, an additional two more weeks of shooting before Christmas, then a few more weeks after Christmas , and a wrap in January 2024.

 

500 crew went home , 3000 extras took their costumes back to storage, Ancient Rome was shown to Maltese public for a day, ( no photos ) and then taken down, and 1200 local crew proudly took a crew gift home and stories to tell the grandchildren. Horses went home to Surrey, the Maltese tanks filled up with the next production, and Jurassic World started prep at di Lockerbie.

 

The shoot went well, Ridley wrapped four days early, 10 days of wrapping locations, a few beers with the lovely local crew, handshakes and some nice crew gifts. The plane takes off, next job is back in London, bye to the Med and an incredible island.