Ugh. I thought Ridley Scott had given up on the idea of a sequel to 2000’s Best Picture winner, Gladiator. But nope, it’s back on again and this time Scott appears to be very serious about it, tasking The Town writer Peter Craig to pen the script.
According to Deadline, Scott has begun development on Gladiator 2, which as you probably guessed would NOT start Russell Crowe. How could it considering Maximus’ fate in the first movie? How could it, considering Crowe now looks like your out-of-shape uncle and not the ripped specimen he was two decades ago? Instead, the story would follow Lucius (“I shall cheer for you!”), the young son of Connie Nielsen’s Lucilla, and the target of Joaquin Phoenix’s murderous Commodus. He was ultimately saved by Maximus, and the sequel will find him inspired by the hero’s sacrifice.
Well, I guess that’s better, albeit a million times less crazy, than the Nick Cave-scripted version he wrote in 2009. That one would have actually seen Maximus return from the dead to kill an upstart Jesus Christ. No bullshit. And he goes on to live forever, fighting in modern day wars. That shit is so wacko I’d give just about anything to see Scott try and make it work.
Scott has a lot on his plate right now so who knows if this ends up going anywhere. Fingers crossed it doesn’t. Gladiator is such a great film, one of the few I paid to see twice on the same day, that it just needs to be left alone.
