Hollywood has always loved sequels and more recently (thanks to George Lucas) prequels as well. There has been talk for some time about a sequel to Gladiator, even though all the main characters are dead by the final credits and even though the film itself lost money during its initial release (See page 324 of George Lucas's Blockbusting by Block & Wilson, c2010)
However ... It seems that Gladiator II will remain stuck in Development Hell for a while longer, and in terms of this proposed script, perhaps that is a good thing.
Nick Cave on his canned 'Gladiator 2' screenplay: 'I wanted to call it 'Christ Killer''
Russell Crowe approached the singer to write the sequel to Ridley Scott's Roman Empire epic
Nick Cave has spoken about his canned Gladiator 2 screenplay.
The singer was approached by Gladiator actor Russell Crowe to pen the script for the sequel to director Ridley Scott's Roman Empire epic, despite all the main characters being killed off in the first film.
Cave recently discussed his script with US comedian Mark Maron for his WTF podcast – via Den Of Geek- where he revealed details of the plot and why his script was never put into production.
"(Crowe) rang me up and asked if I wanted to write 'Gladiator 2," he said. "For someone who had only written one film script, it was quite an ask. 'Hey Russell, didn't you die in 'Gladiator 1'?' 'Yeah, you sort that out.' So, he goes down to purgatory and is sent down by the gods, who are dying in heaven because there's this one god, there's this Christ character, down on Earth who is gaining popularity and so the many gods are dying so they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and his followers."
He continued: "I wanted to call it 'Christ Killer' and in the end you find out that the main guy was his son so he has to kill his son and he was tricked by the gods. He becomes this eternal warrior and it ends with this 20 minute war scene which follows all the wars in history, right up to Vietnam and all that sort of stuff and it was wild. It was a stone cold masterpiece. I enjoyed writing it very much because I knew on every level that it was never going to get made. Let's call it a popcorn dropper."
In 2009, Gladiators director Ridley Scott told UGO: "We tried [to go with Cave's script]. Russell didn't want to let it go, obviously, because it worked very well. When I say 'worked very well', I don't refer to success. I mean, as a piece it works very well. Storytelling, [it] works brilliantly. I think [Cave] enjoyed doing it, and I think it was one of those things that he thought, 'Well, maybe there's a sequel where we can adjust the fantasy and bring [Maximus] back from the dead."
Yeah, while they're at it, how about they also revive Commodus, and make him come back as a nice fellow, trying to make amends for his previous life, and Maximus' wife gets a reprieve, while the cavalry that killed the family are also brought back, but reduced to fighting lions and bears in the arena? Yeah, I'm sure they could get backing...once you breach the purgatory-zombie-karma concept, well, anything goes!
What no Rhinoceros(S) ? Must have Rhinocereii or it's not a good movie. We need more of this drek out of Hollywood for sure.
Since it is near impossible for any meaningful amount of ancient history to taught in school and the classics are even more hopeless with students graduating barely literate in English what comes out of Hollywood and the pseudo history from the History
channel is the warped view of history today's America is stuck with! If history has become drek at least it should be funny drek.
-- into the brains of the rhinos, making them suddenly Shakespearian characters...like one could be yelling, "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" while another is then chasing a dog from the arena, shouting "Out, damned Spot! Out, I say!"
I loved the original. Still do. But time-traveling, supernatural Maximus? No way. Why can't there just be a prequel, with Maximus vs the barbarian and stuff?
Narukami post=340794 Wrote:Cave recently discussed his script with US comedian Mark Maron
Emphasis mine. Was he serious, or just trying to be funny because he was talking to a comedian?
Good question Epictetus. On a perhaps more serious note, it seems Dreamworks has indeed said yes to a Gladiator sequel, even though there is no script ... yet.
"Ignoring hobbit trilogies, there are no recent movie productions that have received the combined critical and box office achievements of 2000's Gladiator. The Russell Crowe epic earned $187.7 million in domestic release and $456.3 million worldwide. It garnered 12 Academy Award nominations, winning five, including the prestigious Best Actor for Crowe and, most importantly, Best Picture. A sequel is an easy call for the studio, right?
Not so fast. There is the small matter of Maximum and Commodus dying at the end of the movie. Making a Gladiator sequel sans a Gladiator is theoretically an impossible proposition. With half a billion dollars being the possible return on investment, stubbornness is apparently going to prevail as DreamWorks has announced Gladiator 2 is a go.
The first logical question is whether this franchise will follow The Mummy/Scorpion King tactic of having a prequel for a slain character. For an extended period of time, this was considered the most likely pursuit for all involved as it would allow for the return of Russell Crowe. Recently, though, returning director Ridley Scott has confirmed that the production will instead be a sequel without Maximus or Commodus.
There will, however, be some returning characters. Cassius, the last remaining heir of Marcus Aurelius, was last seen as a little boy hiding behind the skirt of his mommy, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen). To prevent the boy from growing up as crazy and evil as Uncle Commodus, Lucilla may look into having him receive gladiator and life lessons from Guy Friday. This role would again be played by Djimon Hounsou, who has spent his time between Gladiators becoming a 2004 Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for In America.
No matter the details, the one aspect of the movie that is clear is that a conscious decision will be made to move away from the action and heavily toward the politics of governing in Ancient Rome. Gladiator 2: less gladiating, more misspellings of praetorian." (David Mumpower/BOP)
It is worth noting that although Gladiator did eventually make a profit, on initial release the film actually lost money. This may be due as much to Hollywood's famous 'creative accounting' as to any real failure at the box office, however as of 2005, the P&L on Gladiator was showing a loss of $20 million (in 2005 adjusted dollars) with total box office of $544 million against costs of $287.8 million (including Crowe's salary of $5.7 million) *Remember: Box Office is split between theatres and studios so although total box office looks big, studios do not get all of that. That's why a rough 'rule of thumb' is that a film need to gross triple its production costs in box office revenues in order to break even. (See George Lucas's Blockbusting by Block & Wilson, c2010, page 324.)
This is a free, but limited, preview, so you can only read the entire script if you pay a fee, and, of course, only if you want to invest the time.
Gladiator II (sequel or prequel) has been trapped in Development Hell ever since the original won the Academy Award for Best Picture. That's more than ten years now, so I would not expect a finished film any time soon. Also worth remembering, it was more than 30 years before Ridley Scott returned to Alien, so he may yet do a second Gladiator film.
Hi, liking this topic, if Hollywood were ever to make a sequel, the political situation in the years after Commodus's assassination & the rise of Septimius Severus would make with 5 people vying for the throne would make an interesting backdrop for a well written script involving Lucius who with Commodus dead would be the rightful heir & the pretenders would either want him as a puppet ruler or want him dead. Maybe one of Maximus' s companions might take Lucius to Britain to blend in & not stand out & 9 years later as a grown veteran or gladiator he has to run into Septimius at York & Septimus recognises him. Unlikely but plausible for a script. If Russ had to make an appearance then he could be a spirit or something that only Lucius could see. (Hey if you can have Zombies you can have spirits). The original movie stretched the truth regarding the political situation at the time so it could be stretched a little bit more in a sequel.
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
I know, I know! They could revive the old 1960s Jason and the Argonauts skeleton warriors, and have Commodus and Maximus fight a rematch. Then, with Maximus' being still victorious, he could re-enter the gladiator pool (not literally, as we all know bones can't swim) billing himself as Osseus Durus. After receiving his wooden gladius following various exploits and great victories, he could retire to the mountains in Cisalpine Gaul, and begin writing his memoirs.
That solves the problem of the main characters being dead, and gives a nice and tidy wrap to the story. The retelling of Maximus' memoirs could be a Showtime! mini-series, and then could earn more residuals for the actors and producers. Solves the problem of the Gladiator II being an utter dud at the box office. Wait, wait, an UDDER dud. A sideline could be that when the skeletons revive, all the cows go dry, and the cheese futures market plummets, sending the whole dairy industry into a tailspin, which requires some clever bits from all those emperor candidates, finally ending up with the whole of Rome's financial world being saved by Severus, who reduces the amount of silver in the denarius. See? There you go, we've added some real history to the story now.
