Ridley Scott Back In Arena With ‘Gladiator II’ Star Paul Mescal On ‘The Dog Stars’ At 20th Century

Justin Kroll and Mike Fleming Jr
·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: As they globally barnstorm their Paramount epic Gladiator II, director Ridley Scott and Paul Mescal will jump right back in the ring together. Scott has set as his next directorial outing The Dog Stars at 20th Century, with Paul Mescal in advance negotiations to star.

Mark L. Smith adapted the Peter Heller novel. Scott and Michael Pruss will produce for Scott Free alongside Smith and Cliff Roberts.

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Scott has been weighing a handful of films for his next project including Paramount’s Bee Gees movie. Sources said that they found a sweet spot for the busy Mescal to re-team with Scott, and that is why they’ve set this as their next collaboration, with the aim to shoot next spring after Mescal stars on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire. Mescal is reprising his turn as Stanley Kowalski from the lauded London production of the Tennessee Williams play.

The Bee Gees film will likely follow for Scott in the fall of 2025, as the director continues his ever-prolific pace.

The Dog Stars is set in a near future where an unnamed pandemic has decimated American society. A civilian pilot lives a lonely life on an abandoned Colorado airbase with his dog and a tough ex-marine. The two men couldn’t be more mismatched but depend on each other to fend off roaming invaders. When a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside the pilot that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail.

Though Scott and his cast have been engaged in an international tour of Gladiator II before its November 22 release, the iconic director has always had a knack for getting his next project in order once the previous one is finished. Scott has strong ties with 20th Century and its film chief Steve Asbell, going back to films that include The Martian, Prometheus and most recently the hit Alien: Romulus, which Scott produced.

The scribe, best known for The Revenant, is coming off the hits Twisters, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and starring Glen Powell, and the George Clooney-directed adaptation of The Boys in the Boat. He also has the Netflix series American Primeval with Pete Berg. Brandon Smith and Lily Brooks-Dalton brought the book to Smith and will be executive producers on The Dog Stars.

Mescal is repped by CAA. Smith is repped by Syndicate Entertainment, CAA and attorney Mark Temple.

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