Gladiator is a perfect movie, there, I said it. Honestly, you cannot fault the movie. The only thing that would have made it better is if they included historical Roman leader Biggus Dickus. In all seriousness, Ridley Scott made one of those movies that will stand the test of time.
Rumors were flying around Hollywood for many years about a sequel. A few years ago, there was apparently a script floating around that featured Maximus (Russell Crowe) battling his way through the underworld to rescue his family.
A sequel is due out later this year but has kept the script more grounded. All we know about the plot at the moment is that it:
Follows Lucius, the son of Maximus’s love Lucilla, after Maximus’s death.
Maybe Lucius becomes a farmer and has a nice peaceful like raising chickens and selling eggs. This is why I’m not a Hollywood writer, I have a very dull imagination. The cast is looking impressive so far, Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nelson, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, Rory McCann, Derek Jacobi, Fred Hechinger, Matt Lucas, Peter Mensah, and Tim McInnerny are all on board.
Ridley Scott is back in the director’s chair, with the script written by David Scarpa. Scarpa is a little hit-and-miss, he’s known for The Last Castle and episodes of The Man in the High Castle, but he’s also known for The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) and the recent Napoleon.
Stills From Gladiator 2
Some images from Gladiator 2 have been released by Variety and they look impressive.
I’m not sure about that last one, I didn’t know Scott was going to appear in the movie. The images are impressive and the cast looks good.
The cast has been bigging up Scott on set and talking about what a great filmmaker he is. Joseph Quinn recently said about him:
“Watching him negotiate these brutal shoot days… as you said, he’s not 32 anymore. But he conducts himself with such a vigor, and thirst, for life and also filmmaking, still—he just loves it, and that is very infectious. Working with him… I was never expecting to do that, obviously, and so I was incredibly grateful.”
Scott has been hit-and-miss lately. There was a time when he was almost worshipped for his work, but in later years, it is as if he lost something he once had. Will Gladiator 2 be a return to form for him?
Interestingly, they also recently announced that Gladiator 2 will be released at the same time as Wicked.
Wicked is the movie, based on the Broadway Musical, which is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. It looks like they will be trying to recreate the buzz that Barbie and Oppenheimer had. I hope they called it the Gladawicked Weekend… Again, no imagination.
Gladiator 2 and Wicked will be released in cinemas on 22nd November.