Ridley Scott has revealed that Nick Cave was approached to pen the sequel to 'Gladiator'.
Now firmly back in the fold with his beloved Bad Seeds, it's easy to forget that Nick Cave spent the bulk of the past decade pursuing cinematic projects. Writing screenplays, composing soundtracks and even doing the odd spot of acting the Australian artist quickly gained a reputation amongst the film community.
Seemingly, this extended to some pretty big names. Ridley Scott directed hit Roman Empire epic 'Gladiator' and seemingly approached Nick Cave to pen a sequel – despite the fact that most of the main characters had been killed.
Speaking to UGO.com the director said: "We tried (to work with Cave's screenplay). Russell didn't want to let it go, obviously, because it worked very well. When I say 'worked very well', I don't refer to success. I mean, as a piece it works very well. (As a piece of) storytelling, (it) works brilliantly. I think (Cave) enjoyed doing it, and I think it was one of those things that he thought, 'Well, maybe there's a sequel where we can adjust the fantasy and bring (Crowe's character) back from the dead'".
Back from the dead, you say? Nick Cave recently spoke to US comedian Mark Maron for his 'WTF' podcast, and explained a little more about what the plot would actually involve. (via Den Of Geek)
"(Crowe) rang me up and asked if I wanted to write 'Gladiator 2'. For someone who had only written one film script, it was quite an ask. 'Hey Russell, didn't you die in 'Gladiator 1'?' 'Yeah, you sort that out'. So, he goes down to purgatory and is sent down by the gods, who are dying in heaven because there's this one god, there's this Christ character, down on Earth who is gaining popularity and so the many gods are dying so they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and his followers".
Continuing, the Australian artist said: "I wanted to call it 'Christ Killer', and in the end you find out that the main guy was his son so he has to kill his son and he was tricked by the gods. He becomes this eternal warrior and it ends with this 20 minute war scene which follows all the wars in history, right up to Vietnam and all that sort of stuff and it was wild. It was a stone cold masterpiece. I enjoyed writing it very much because I knew on every level that it was never going to get made. Let's call it a popcorn dropper".
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