New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe would be a long way off action star fitness these days. But that hasn't prevented director Ridley Scott from plotting a follow up to his 2000 installment Gladiator. The title won Best Picture and a Best Actor award for Crowe at the Academy Awards. And, despite the obvious demise of the central character in Maximus at the conclusion of the picture, Scott argues that he has a concept to work with.
Rumors have been circulating that production on a sequel had been happening quietly behind the scenes. Yet, without any announcement from a studio or an executive, these have been dismissed out of hand. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas, the filmmaker outlined his vision for a potential Gladiator 2.
Ridley Wants Russ Back For G2
Creating a screenplay that works without the central protagonist would be a bold move, but Scott is adamant that he wants his Academy Award winner back into the fold for the project. So much so that he has a track of Crowe's movements and is angling to meet with his old colleague in the near future.
"I know how to bring him back," started the director. "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."
Australian artist Nick Cave was said to have been commissioned to create a script for a follow up in 2009, but that talk diminished without any sign of progress. Cave has worked on a number of musical scores over his illustrious career, including Hell or High Water, The Road and Lawless.
Covenant Carrying Way More Than You Would Think
Given the teaser trailer depicts a select few onboard for Alien: Covenant, many believed that the scale for the upcoming prequel would stick to that formula. Talking with The Mashable Show at South by Southwest, Scott admitted that there are a hoard of people who will be affected.
"Couples for a very good reason — it's a colony ship," he remarked. "At some point somebody's going to go off and never come back. Once you go past Mars ... everything beyond that, you're going to have to hyper-sleep, or live and die onboard, as it's going to the next star. You're probably want a couple thousand people onboard."
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