As soon as he was hired to write the score for Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” Harry Gregson-Williams knew that he’d need to come to terms with the music Hans Zimmer had written for the original “Gladiator” in 2000. “I’ve done sequels before, but this was perhaps a bit more complex emotionally since I’m buddies with Hans, and his score for the original is so loved, quite rightly,” he said. But just as Scott used a couple of flashbacks to Russell Crowe’s character, Maximus, but spent most of his time on Paul Mescal, who plays Crowe’s son, Lucius, Gregson-Williams wanted to be sparing with the quotes from Zimmer’s themes.
Composer Harry Gregson-Williams’ Job on ‘Gladiator II’: 100 Minutes of New Music, and a Little Bit of Hans Zimmer
TheWrap magazine: The exchange came with the composer’s plans to incorporate a bit of Hans Zimmer’s theme from the first “Gladiator”
