Ridley Scott has revealed why Nick Cave‘s proposed Gladiator sequel never came to fruition.
Following the financial and critical success of the 2000 original – it won five Oscars, including best picture and best actor for Russell Crowe – both its lead star and director were keen to make a follow-up.
John Logan, one of the screenwriters of Gladiator, was originally commissioned to write a sequel, which would be set in Ancient Rome but not feature Crowe, due to his character Maximus Decimus Meridius dying at the end of the first film.
Wanting to star in the sequel himself, Crowe instead turned to the theatrical singer-songwriter Cave to pen a script and find a credible way to weave Maximus back into the story.
Cave’s unconventional plot saw Maximus come face-to-face with the Roman gods in the afterlife, before being thrown back into the mortal world and then time travelling across the centuries to partake in different historical battles.
According to Cave, Crowe wasn’t exactly keen on the idea, simply telling him: “Don’t like it, mate.”
Paul Mescal in ‘Gladiator II’ and Russell Crowe in ‘Gladiator’ CREDIT: Paramount / Universal / Getty Images
Now, in a new interview with The New York Times, Scott has offered further explanation as to why the film never went ahead.
“It got too grand. Nick is very high theatre, and Steven Spielberg [who was consulted on the original film] said, ‘Nah’. I wasn’t confident about what we had actually put together, so I just let it go.”
Scott and Crowe did discuss various other ideas for a sequel, however. “Russell and I got together a couple of years [after the first film], and Russell said, ‘What can we do? I’m dead.’ I suddenly thought there’s a way of bringing him back from the dead: As a man dies in battle, that is the opportunity to come from the dead side into the life side, to come back in the body of a soldier. I said, ‘The problem is, Russell, either you’re going to be the double of Maximus or you’re going to have to be somebody else.’”
Asked why he was happy to go ahead with Gladiator II after years of false starts, Scott said: “I became determined to not let it go because the enthusiasm wouldn’t go away. I wanted to honour that and I’d be crazy not to — also financially crazy because if you get it right, it’s a big winner. So I just thought, ‘I’m going to sit here until we come up with a footprint.’
Scott was also asked how he came to settle on Paul Mescal as the sequel’s lead. “I noticed Paul when I was watching Normal People,” he said.
“I thought, ‘My God, he looks like Richard Harris,’ so immediately, ding! It’s the nose, the profile. At this point, I think I’ve spotted so many first-timers right back to Sigourney [Weaver for Alien], Brad [Pitt for Thelma & Louise]. Part of my job is I’m a good caster, and I’m also helped by very good casting directors, so I choose them carefully. To me, a casting director is as important as a good camera.
Elsewhere in the New York Times interview, Scott recalled the time Crowe described his co-star Joaquin Phoenix as “terrible unprofessional” for nearly quitting Gladiator mid-shoot.
In other news, a Paul Mescal lookalike contest took place in Dublin yesterday (November 7) just moments before the actor himself attended the Irish premiere of Gladiator II.
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