This looked interesting… 😀
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[size=large]Unleashing Hell? “Gladiator 2” Coming[/size]
A hero will rise again, if Gladiator producers get their way
Sure, Russell Crowe’s character, General Maximus–the heart and soul of director Ridley Scott’s 2000 Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2000–died triumphantly at the end of the film.
But, according to the Hollywood Reporter, that’s not
stopping producers of the sweeping swordplay epic from proceeding with a follow-up flick.
As proven yet again this summer, Tinseltown loves a sequel. But the most successful sequels tend to bring back the major players from the original.
That doesn’t appear to be the case with Gladiator, considering most of the starring cast wound up dead by the closing credits, with an exception being
Djimon Hounsou, who played Maximus’ sparring sidekick, Juba. Yet, while a prequel might be an excuse to try to lure Crowe to re-don the toga or have Joaquin Phoenix reprise his Oscar-nominated turn as the jealous Roman Emperor Commodus (Phoenix, too, met his maker in the original), producers appear to be going in a completely different direction.
While details are sketchy at this point, the story for Gladiator 2 is reportedly set 15 years after Maximus’ demise.
Unless the film decides to follow the exploits of Maximus’ ghost, there’s little chance of Crowe coming aboard, likewise for Scott.
In fact, one of the few people back from the original thus far is writer John Logan. A member of the Gladiator’s Oscar-nominated trifecta of writers alongside David Franzoni and William Nicholson, Logan has the unenviable task of coming up with an encore to the lauded blockbuster and replace nearly the entire cast.
Aside from Gladiator, Logan has penned scripts for director Oliver Stone’s football saga Any Given Sunday, DreamWorks’ The Time Machine and the upcoming Warner Bros. film The Last Samurai, which Tom Cruise plans to topline.
Hollywood has a sordid history trying to franchise Oscar-winning movies. With the rare exception of The Godfather II, all too often such sequels tarnish the legacy of the original (see Rockys III through V, The Sting 2 and most recently the Scott-helmed Hannibal).
No word yet on a shooting date for Gladiator 2, though it’s doubtful the project will hit the big screen until 2005, at the earliest. The sequel will be produced by Franzoni, Douglas Wick and DreamWorks’ co-head of film production, Walter Parkes.
Here’s hoping they don’t unleash a hellish movie.