Paul Mescal in talks to re-team with Ridley Scott for 'The Dog Stars'

LOS ANGELES: Irish star Paul Mescal could soon reunite with director Ridley Scott following the release of their much-anticipated film "Gladiator II".

According to entertainment news outlet The Hollywood Reporter, Mescal is in talks to lead the filmmaker's next directorial "The Dog Stars", based on author Peter Heller's 2012 book of the same.

The movie is expected to shoot in 2025 after Scott completes work on an untitled Bee Gees movie at Paramount.

Adapted by Mark L Smith of "The Revenant" fame, "The Dog Stars" is set in a near future where an unnamed pandemic has decimated American society.

"However, a civilian pilot lives a lonely life on an abandoned Colorado airbase with his dog and a tough ex-marine.

"The two men, though mismatched, depend on each other to fend off roaming invaders. And when a random transmission beams through the radio of the pilot’s 1956 Cessna, the hope of a better life opens up and the pilot follows its static-broken trail," read the official plotline.

For the latest project, Scott is collaborating with Steve Asbell and 20th Century Studios. The movie will be produced by Smith, Cliff Roberts and the director's banner Scott Free.

Mescal is currently looking forward to "Gladiator II", a sequel to Scott's 2000 multiple Oscar-winning movie "Gladiator".

He plays the role of a grown-up Lucius Verus II, a nephew to emperor Commodus from the original film, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Lucius returns to Rome after being forced into slavery to battle not as a ruler, but as a gladiator out for revenge and power, and seeks to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Also starring Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger and Connie Nielsen, "Gladiator II" will be released in India on November 15.