Gays REJOICE! First look at Paul Mescal in “Gladiator II”!

They hired an entire cast of midgets to make him look huge.

Looks visceral.

I’d see it anyway. I love ancient spectacles, ever since I grew up on them in the 50’s and 60’s.

He always reminds me of Barry Fitzgerald, the way his face looks like he's smelling farts.

he does have a roman nose.

The sequel nobody asked for, starring the guy nobody gives a shit about.

OP is PaulMescalLover/vintagebeefcake btw.

She doesn’t have a penis.

My ovaries are exploding over my dear Paul . . .

That PML poster really soured the mention of his name on DL.

Awful movie, lousy script, terrible and boring lead actor.

and on top of it, FAS faced Barry Keoghan.

Barry Keoghan isn’t in this.

Oh, I forgot he dropped out. Sorry.

Would have preferred big gay Hank.

More Paul.

He’s really tiny.

…Quite small tits.

Boy those are some annoying pop up ads.

Have we not shook and cried enough????

I think he looks phenomenal, personally.

Yay! Men are inspired to workout because of how good he looks!

Rat-faced fug

He looks his height. No smoke and mirrors can disguise this.

Well Zendaya and Austin Wolf have proven they’re Hollywood’s A-List that can’t actually open a movie.

I know Powell is up next with Twisters.

I don’t see it for Mescal. This screams huge flop.

Early reports from the Gladiator set suggest he’s up to his old tricks with the body odor fetish. Denzel Washington is now demanding that all their scenes together be shot separately and patched back in post. Apparently Paul Mescal hasn’t bathed since day one, and only Washington has the clout to say no. Other cast members are said to be stuffing their nostrils deep with tissue to avoid their eyes watering visibly on camera due to the stench. They’re begging the director to let them redo all their lines via looping to tone down the nasality of their voices. It’s sad all around, and Mescal shows no signs of stopping. He’s been seen stroking his genitals over his gladiator costume whenever he succeeds in making another actor retch during a take. 🤢

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ SNORE ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

R28 Austin Butler. And their films did fine for niche films.

Neither Challengers nor The Bikeriders were niche films and neither were marketed as such.

Have one of Pedro?

[quote] Yay! Men are inspired to workout because of how good he looks!

I hope they’re inspired to have a physician put them on PEDs because otherwise they’re in for severe disappointment.

Gladiator II: On the Rocks

Pin head

I have a feeling this is going to be a massive bomb and ruin Paul Mescal’s career. Similar to what’s his face who did John Carter.

Is that our Paul?

Paul was so sexy in that gay movie.

GLA-AAA-DIATOR!

[quote]Similar to what’s his face who did John Carter.

How quickly we forget.

Well, OP might swoon, but I think he's plug-ugly.

"The Bikeriders" comes across as a showcase for Austin's face, though director Nichols swirls cigarette smoke around it constantly.

Tom Hardy is the ostensible star as The Leader of the Pack, as it were.

IMO, the film's announced very early streaming isn't that Austin Butler "can't open" a movie (See: "Elvis"); rather, it is that THIS particular movie has almost no plot. No "there" there.

It is a superficial look at this leather-clad milieu without adding one iota of anything new or revelatory---not characters; motivations (except for the silly yet real reason the club was formed: the organizer liked "The Wild One"); interactions; attitudes; nothing. All very BT, DT, and better.

There is more chemistry between Benny (AB) and Johnny (TH) than between Benny and Cathy (Jodie Comer). One expects, truly, a kiss between the men in one brilliant scene. That said, neither the hetero- nor homoerotic angles are developed. No kissing, no sex, no steam-heat. Thus, the Cathy/Benny alleged red-hot relationship rings false.

As for the motorcycle love, we really see only Benny ride, free, mostly alone, with reckless abandon. The rest of the men and bikes seem afterthoughts, some racing notwithstanding.

Benny gets in fights. Johnny broods. Cathy narrates. BFD.

And I say all the above as a major Austin Butler fan.

Topic: I'm no fan of Paul Mescal, but it looks like his fight scenes will be superior to the much-ballyhooed Feyd-Rautha vs. Paul Atreides duel.

I'm sorry but PM does absolutely nothing for me. Dick wither.

Look up “meh” in the dictionary. You will see a photo of “our” Paul there.

He doesn't look buff at all. He looks like he just barely worked out.

Russell Crowe had a certain gravitas in the role that Mescal doesn’t have.

Agreed, R47. Although Russell Crowe's career hasn't gone anywhere lately, he suited the role in 'Gladiator' very well, and won the Oscar for it.

Trailer, Tuesday the 9th of July.

Butter face.

They’re overdoing it with the makeup.

I hope it flops and stalls his career.

Will the Gladiator II movie feature his big blue eyes that many of us noticed in the closeups in All of US Strangers?

I don’t understand the Paul Mescal lust myself as he’s so ordinary.

An Irish actor taking on “Gladiator”. Looking back at that era, Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell were hot.

I think Mescal is a good actor but he doesn't really seem like an action star, though neither did the skinny Robert Pattinson & he did reasonably well as Batman. I love a big costume drama too, but Mescal just doesn't have that bad ass energy (even if he's got the bod) that the young Russell Crowe did

Gladiator II has not even been released yet, and Ridley Scott is planning for a Gladiator III. He indicates that Paul Mescal would return as the lead, so that must mean he doesn't die in Gladiator II. (Russell Crowe's character died at the end of Gladiator I.)

This is the sequel with Denzel right?

[quote]I think I can speak for all of us.

I think not.

Paul Mescal in artwork for Gladiator II.

R56, did you really have to start this thread up again?

These gladiator flicks are boring & predictable AF.

No one with an IQ over 70 watches this shit.

I prefer those silly old Euro peplums - at least those were so-bad-they're-good and had some genuinely hot men in them. This one looks just plain bad, with an uncharismatic lead and distracting CGI.

Will the tag line be "Gladiator II - This Time It's Plebian!"

R61 is not Captain Oveur.

[quote]An Irish actor taking on “Gladiator”. Looking back at that era, Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell were hot.

Russell Crowe (protagonist) and Joaquin Phoenix (antagonist) were so hot in the first film.

Both very attractive men when young.

Joaquin's close-ups, in particular, are a wonder.

I'm sure that helped at the box-office à la DiCaprio with TITANIC (#2 of the year) and definitely made them stars (both Oscar-nominated).

Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn, as the hero and villain in the sequel, are rather meh by comparison, IMO.

[quote]Joaquin's close-ups, in particular, are a wonder.

I meant to add "like a statue carved by Roman artisans."

Perfect casting for a Roman emperor.

R66 - Wasn't Joaquin having bouts of mental breakdowns during production? I could swear I read he was a total basket case.

Google AI says this about Joaquin in Gladiator:

[quote] Joaquin Phoenix almost left Gladiator because he was "terrified" of his role as Commodus. Phoenix, who was 24 at the time, said he was "shaking" when he first arrived on set in 1999. A source close to the film told Variety that Phoenix had "cold feet"

Joaquin also was talked out of leaving these three films: Joker, C'mon C'mon, and Napoleon.

He actually quit the Todd Haynes gay film days before filming.

James McAvoy said that Joaquin quit the film, "Split" two weeks before filming, so the role went to McAvoy. "Split" required the lead to play 15 different personalities, and McAvoy had a very compressed amount of time to figure out how to play the role after Joaquin left (yet another film).

Is this movie ever coming out or what?

Mmm, no.

He always looks exactly what he is: a nice sweet Irish boy who happens to have a good body.

I would not kick him out of bed for eating crackers, but at the same time I cannot see him as this great lust object. He's too sweet-looking for that.

Not to hijack the thread, but Joaquin was pushed into acting as a small child in the early '80s.

After his older brother River hit it really big with SAND BY ME (1986), including getting an Oscar nomination for RUNNING ON EMPTY (1988) at age 18, he became the sole breadwinner.

As the spare, Joaquin was allowed to quit acting at 15 after he did PARENTHOOD (1989) despite it being a box-office smash.

In 1993, River died suddenly of a drug overdose on Halloween at Johnny Depp's infamous Viper Room nightclub, which became instant fodder for the tabloids.

And since Joaquin was underage and present and made the 9-1-1 call that was played on the news, he was hounded by the press.

(That's why Joaquin has had a contentious relationship with the media and has anxiety about the whole thing.)

Thus, the Phoenix family moved out of the country for about a year, until things calmed down.

When they returned, Joaquin was pushed front-center to take River's place and went back to acting in Gus Van Sant's TO DIE FOR (1995) which got him acclaim.

Luckily for the family, Joaquin succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams (4 Oscar nods, 1 win) and is now married and has kids with Rooney Mara, who comes from NFL royalty (mom's family Rooney founded/own Pittsburgh Steelers, dad's family Mara founded/own New York Giants).

But he probably would have preferred a quiet, anonymous lifestyle, which I think he hopes to achieve with Rooney, who is also a private person.

I don't like SAND. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

R61 The first Gladiator is an incredible film. Are you adverse to violence or something. It’s nothing wrong if you are.

R65 Titanic came out in 1997.

R75 I meant that action flicks TITANIC (1997) and GLADIATOR (2000) both benefited at the box-office from having very attractive male leads, which always draws in the young women/gays on top of the usual suspects (i.e. straight men).