Nick Cave’s script for the sequel to Gladiator has been leaked to the internet according to the London Guardian. The Australian rocker was recruited several years ago by the Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott to pen a screenplay that solved the problem of Crowe’s character Maximus being, well, dead at the the end of the first film. Cave’s script never made its way to the big screen although the whole idea is doubly mouth-watering given his fine writing on 2005′s underrated Aussie-western The Proposition.
I was unable to locate a copy of the Gladiator 2 script on the world wide interwebs. But according to this synopsis the film would have had Maximus permanently banished back to earth where meets up with Juba (the character played in the first film by Djmon Hounsou), leads an army of Christians in a battle against Roman soldiers and is ultimately seen fighting his way across the centuries in the Middle East, Europe and Vietnam.
Yes, it all sounds a bit nuts. But everything Cave does has a bit of the crazy about it and that doesn’t stop 99.9% of it being pretty darn good.
What do you think? Would you have liked to see Cave raise Maximus from the dead? Or should he stick to killing people in his songs (as he does in the course of the Kylie Minogue duet below)?
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