Russell Crowe‘s Maximus may have died a noble death at the end of the sweaty sword and sandal epic Gladiator, but director Ridley Scott is not about to let a little thing like that stand in his way.
The famed filmmaker was at the SXSW film festival in Austin this weekend to discuss his upcoming Alien: Covenant, but when the subject of a possible Gladiator sequel came up, he revealed that he’s been keen to do one for a while.
Further to that, Scott told Entertainment Weekly that he actually has a plan for how he would get around Maximus’ death, saying:
“I know how to bring him back. I was having this talk with the studio, ‘but he’s dead.’ But there is a way of bringing him back. Whether it will happen I don’t know. Gladiator was 2000, so Russell’s changed a little bit. He’s doing something right now but I’m trying to get him back down here.”
Back in 2009, details emerged of a script that was written by Nick Cave, at the request of Russell Crowe, telling the story of a reincarnated Maximus wreaking havoc through the ages. Per a synopsis:
“Maximus meddles with Roman gods in the afterlife, is reincarnated, defends early Christians, reunites with his son, and ultimately lives forever – leading tanks in the second world war and even mucking around in the modern-day Pentagon.”
It’s unknown whether Scott might plan to draw from this rejected script as a source, and he remained pretty tight-lipped about his idea, but if the movie gods smile on us, maybe one day we’ll get to find out.
Source: MovieWeb.
Photo: Universal.
