Ridley Scott will move forward with a Gladiator 2 film that will be a direct sequel to the critically acclaimed [easyazon_link identifier=”B005DNPHN4″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Gladiator[/easyazon_link] that won Best Picture and Best Actor at the Oscars.
According to Deadline, the film will follow the story of Lucilla’s son Lucius. He was the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus and grandson of Marcus Aurelius.
Ridley Scott’s Scott Free is expected to lead the way on getting the film made. Scott is expected to direct based on a script by Peter Craig. Craig wrote [easyazon_link identifier=”B004GJVI5C” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]The Town[/easyazon_link], 12 Strong, two of the Hunger Games movies, and the upcoming Top Gun sequel.
Paramount looks to be the studio that will produce the film, but Universal will have the option to co-finance.
There isn’t a timeline for when the film will head into production. Ridley Scott has a number of other projects already in the works including his upcoming television series for TNT, Raised by Wolves. He’s also working on a Disney film that will focus on the younger years of the wizard Merlin. He also has a project about photojournalist Lyndsey Addario with Scarlett Johansson attached.
But given the huge appeal of a Gladiator sequel it’s quite possible it could get fast-tracked.
Given the massive success of the first film, a sequel will have an extremely tough time trying to trump it especially when both of the lead characters met their demise in the first film.
It will be interesting to see what the story looks like and if it will actually focus on the Roman gladiatorial pits or if we might see a more military and political film with Lucius trying to maintain control of Rome with potential threats from German tribes likes the Goths and Visigoths.
Do you think they should make a Gladiator sequel? What would you want to see in a sequel? But maybe the biggest question, are you not entertained?