There’s no doubt that the temporal divide between universally acclaimed original movie and derivative, schmaltzy, cornball sequel continues to shrink. It seems like hardly a decade can pass without some studio or director getting greedy and trying in vain to breath new life into a modern classic and create a cinematic franchise. We just got the second installment of Independence Day and Jurassic Park Part 15, and there’s a new Aliens movie coming to theaters. Speaking of Ridley Scott, the director is all set to milk another one of his classic films in a—well, let’s just call it an attempt for now—at a sequel to 2000s Russell Crowe box office boon, Gladiator.
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But how, you may ask? Didn’t Maximus (Russell Crowe) epically bite the dust at the end of the film and then join his beloved family in the afterlife? Well, according to Scott, these are inconsequential details.
“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.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, Crowe teamed up with Nick Cave in 2009 to write a sequel about Maximus’s adventures in the afterlife, but it’s unknown whether or not this is the same project that Scott is alluding to.
There’s no doubt Crowe’s aged a great deal in the nearly two decades since Gladiator came out, so we can’t help wonder how he’d pull off Maximus in Scott’s planned sequel. But hey, maybe—like the first Gladiator film—it might turn out really well. Best of luck, Ridley. We’re all rooting for ya.
(h/t UPROXX)