The Neverwas: Nick Cave's GLADIATOR II
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A Gladiator sequel written by gloom rocker Nick Cave sounds like a particularly goofy set-up for an improv comedy group. (You can totally picture Wayne Brady and Ryan Stiles acting it out, can't you?) But Cave actually wrote the script, and it was a dark, fantastic and very, very weird thing. (Click the image at left to buy the original film.)
Gladiator was a big hit, and leading man Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott were keen to make a sequel. But there was one minor problem: Crowe's character, Maximus, died at the end of the first film. They approached the Bad Seed, and he turned in a script that resurrected Maximus from the dead and only got more interesting from there.
Cave's script makes a sharp left turn into supernatural fantasy and has Maximus clashing with the gods, being reincarnated and turned into an eternally living warrior. We follow him all the way through WWII and Vietnam and into the modern age, and the story concludes in a Pentagon restroom. (You can read a full story synopsis and review here.)
As strange as the script was, Crowe and Scott were quite taken with it.
"We tried [to go with Cave's script]," Scott told UGO.com. "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. 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 [Maximus] back from the dead.'"
Cave would go on to other screenwriting gigs, including the 2005 film The Proposition. But music remains his first love. As he told Variety, "I'm very comfortable in my day job as a musician. The last thing I ever wanted to get involved with is Hollywood. The way it works is that people get an idea you could possibly do something, but there's a one-in-a-hundred chance that it could get made. It's a waste of fucking time, and I have a lot to do."
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