Remember "Gladiator 2"? Nick Cave's Script Discovered
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Scripts, Remakes and Sequels, Religious
I have the deep suspicion that despite being picked up round the Internet, this Nick Cave "synopsis" will end up being some kind of hoax. If it does, the story someone has concocted for Gladiator 2 is so brilliantly crazy that it's worth reading. Gone Elsewhere has the rundown for you. This script meets up with Maximus seconds after he comes to in the afterlife. Our deceased gladiator isn't met by his family, but by a mysterious figure named Moredecai. He introduces him to the Roman pantheon who mock him, and offer a deal to kill their brother Hephaestos. If he can, they'll reunite him with his wife and son. Once out of immortal earshot, Moredecai tells Maximus these are lies and that his wife, Maria, sacrified her place in Elyisium to allow their son, Marius, to cheat death. He's now back in Rome living a mortal life. Disbelieving this, our undead hero marches to find Hephaestos who is trying to usher in an age of a "one, true God" and sends him hurtling back to mortal Rome. There Maximus encounters the adult Lucius who is pretty busy slaughtering Christians for the Emperor, a situation that Maximus finds himself embroiled in ... and not surprisingly, one that reunites him with his adult son. There's the cue to unleash hell.
Needless to say, it's a unique read. Cave really took the "What we do in life, echoes in eternity" tagline literally. (You'll know what I mean when you get to the end.) It's so easy to let your mind get carried away imagining scenes like Lucius passing a bust of Maximus and realizing he just saw him in a mob that I'd like to see this filmed, albeit not as a Gladiator sequel, but as pure Roman fantasy. Read it, and see if you agree.
[via IMDB]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-08-2009 @ 3:26PM
David Fendley said...
I would love to see this script made into a film, but definitely not as a "Gladiator" sequel. "Gladiator" needs to remain the solo film that it is.
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5-08-2009 @ 4:13PM
Jon Payne said...
This is the worst idea of all sequel-time! You can't take Maximus and turn him into a divine comedy cribbing-resurrected-christianity spreading-time traveling zombie hero! How could anyone, ever think that such an idea could do anything but rob the relevance of the character's journey in first film. Also just because christianity spread through Rome doesn't mean that suddenly Maximus should fight for it...or that it should ever be thought of in a right vs. wrong context in a gladiator epic. This whole script idea whether it is real or not essentially hijacks the first movie for it's own purposes. It's offensive on so many levels!
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5-08-2009 @ 4:24PM
Kristopher said...
I love Nick Cave.
Jon, you really think this is a worse idea than... Well, 3/4 of all other sequels ever made?
I guess you're right, they should just make sequels that are pretty much the exact same as the previous movie, only with more villains or a kid instead.
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5-08-2009 @ 4:52PM
Batzarro said...
I know you meant Jon, but, GOD! Anything that starts by undoing a final death ending/sacrifice immediately transends normal sequel woes and enters "why the hell would they?" territory.
5-09-2009 @ 2:44AM
Jon said...
Kristopher,
Yes absolutely, because it violates every sense of thematic continuity and reason from the first one. It's like story/theme rape. Batzarro's comment below is a great way of phrasing it.
And in response to your second paragraph, complete disregard for the original story, characters and plot points isn't the only or best way to make a sequel different. This isn't the same thing as changing Alien from a thriller to an action movie (Aliens). This is going from quasi-believable historical fiction with a heart to full on mythical fantasy. That's downright disrespectful to the original. This whole script sounds so far fetched that several people have been suggesting that it's a hoax.
5-08-2009 @ 8:49PM
Gab said...
Lucias was, as Lucilla says, "heir to the throne," so unless he's killing them *as* emperor and not *for* the emperor, that in itself is already a technical, continuity issue.
But I agree, he made his sacrifice and died- that was the whole point. It dilutes the purpose down to bad fiber water if you make him come back to life. Ridiculous.
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5-09-2009 @ 8:58AM
McGinty said...
I agree that as a sequel it would be truly awful, should never be made. But adapt the script to a stand alone story, and throw it to a truly talented director (Ridley Scott would still be perfect, he knows a little something about historic epics) and this is one of the most interesting mythological epics i have heard of
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5-30-2009 @ 9:04AM
Spoonface said...
It's probably not a hoax - Nick Cave has talked about his script in a number of interviews, and what's been 'discovered' fits what he's said - he's talked about the 'eternal warrior' aspect of the script. Either it's the real deal, or somebody's pieced it together from what Cave has said about it.
And stop taking the original Gladiator so bloody seriously, for god's sake.
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