...since this obviously seems to be a thematic retread of Gladiator, I figured to myself, well, why didn't they just slightly recraft Nick Cave's script for Gladiator 2 and turn it into the first part of this movie?
I'm guessing a lot of you are shaking your heads in confusion, muttering, "Gladiator 2? What's he going on about?" To allay your suspicions, I therefore turn you to a handy PDF download link for the Gladiator 2 screenplay: http://www.mypdfscri...-2-by-nick-cave
It's a surprisingly short screenplay, but, since most of you probably won't be reading it long enough for the purposes of this topic, I'll give you a little rundown:
- Maximus arrives in the afterlife, kills a couple of thieves, meets a "peacekeeper" named Mordecai, wanders through a remote wasteland of the afterlife, attempts to contact his wife and child, is commissioned by a delirious, dying group of gods to kill a rebellious member of their own, seeks out this rebel, finds him dying and is sent into the belly of the Christian massacres of Rome, years after his own death.
- He seeks out the Christian rebels, meets his own son (who has been ressurrected by the gods after his mother sacrified her place in Elysium for him), fights with Lucius (the nephew of Emperor Commodus from the first film, who has grown into an even crueller man than his uncle was), and is recognized by astonished onlookers as being the ressurrected gladiator killed in the last movie.
- Juba (Djimon Hounsou's character from the original film) seeks him out and presents him with the figurines of his wife and son that he buried in the ground of the Colosseum in the first film, which he recently dug up due to the Emperor planning to flood the Colosseum for a new series of games.
- Marius's (Maximus's son) adoptive father, a Christian schoolteacher, is killed by his own students as Lucius watches on, and Mordecai visits Maximus to tell him that the gods have now permanently banished him to Earth for failing to kill the god who rebelled; he will never die "until eternity itself has said its prayers".
- Finally, as Emperor Decius watches on, Christians are slaughtered by crocodiles and Roman warships in the new round of games at the Colosseum, intercut with Maximus and his new Christian army attacking the forces of Lucius. Lucius kills Juba, and Maximus, enraged, slashes into Lucius with the speed and fury that brought him fame as a gladiator. Finally, Lucius awaits the killing stroke from Maximus, but is unexpected killed by an arrow from Marius, who is still angry over the death of his adoptive father. As he repents to the heavens for what he has done, Maximus kneels to the ground and rubs dirt between his fingers.
- This last shot is intercut with scenes from the rest of Maximus's life, an undying soldier living a life of banal slaughter and warfare up to today.
We would segue from Maximus rubbing dirt on his fingers into... Maximus, fighting in the Crusades for King Richard, as Robin Hood. A bit cheesy, true, but at least it would spice up the traditional tale a bit, as well as give Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe an active reason for pursuing the story to be in the same vein as Gladiator before it.
I'm curious for your reactions, now; what do you all think? Is it viable, or not?
