Are you not entertained? No, seriously . . . are you not? Because Ridley Scott apparently thinks you could be better served on that front. So much so that the director has decided to move forward with a sequel to Gladiator, the 2000 best-picture-winning drama in which a furious Russell Crowe asks a coliseum full of people— well, you know.
According to Deadline, Scotts pushing ahead with the film, an idea hes been kicking around for quite a few years. Peter Craig, who co-wrote the last two Hunger Games movies and the upcoming Top Gun reboot, will write the script. Paramount is on board to distribute. Universal, which distributed the original, reportedly “has the option” to co-finance. Scott will reportedly direct, though his representatives have not yet confirmed the news to Vanity Fair.
Per Deadline, Gladiator 2 will center on Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and the nephew of sniveling monster Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix in pure, chaotic evil mode). And even though (spoiler alert!) Crowes character, Maximus, dies in the original film, Scott is apparently dreaming up a way to revive him for another round. “I know how to bring him back,” Scott said in a 2017 interview. “I was having this talk with the studio—but hes dead. But there is a way of bringing him back. Whether it will happen, I dont know. Gladiator was 2000, so Russells changed a little bit.”
Crowe has already demonstrated some interest in returning to the material. In 2009, he tapped rocker Nick Cave to write a follow-up film about Maximuss journey in the afterlife. The dark energy holding that project together eventually evaporated, but Cave did end up writing a script about Maximus getting sent back down to Earth by the gods, who want him to kill Christ. Cave, naturally, “wanted to call it Christ Killer,” he said in an interview. “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. Lets call it a popcorn dropper.”
Alas, we will literally never, ever see that version of the film. But well be getting . . . something!
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
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