Some primate news now, with director Sir Ridley Scott revealing his upcoming Gladiator sequel will feature a fight scene between Paul Mescal and a pack of baboons.
Yes, you read that correctly.
The follow-up to the Best Picture-winning Gladiator will see the much-loved Irish actor fending off some vicious baboons.
Intrigued? Us too.
The revelation was made during the filmmaker’s recent interview with The New Yorker, to promote his latest film Napoleon.
Apparently, Scott was inspired to include the scene after being “haunted” by a video he watched of baboons attacking a group of tourists in South Africa.
“Baboons are carnivores,” he explained. “Can you hang from that roof for two hours by your left leg? No! A baboon can.”
Truly, we don’t know how to feel about the revelation the Normal People star will be going toe-to-toe with furious monkeys, but the good folks over on X (formerly Twitter) seem pretty excited by the idea…
That wasn’t the only pearl of wisdom to come from Scott’s New Yorker interview, though.
He previously revealed that if he were to win his first Oscar in the near future, he would declare it was “about feckin’ time”, and also had some choice words for those who’ve already pointing out inaccuracies in his upcoming film.
Napoleon hits cinemas later this month, while production on the Gladiator follow-up is set to resume when the ongoing Hollywood actors’ strike is over.
As well as Paul Mescal (and his animal pals), the sequel will also include appearances from Pedro Pascal, Derek Jacobi, Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen.