Today I learned that Russell Crowe originally asked Nick Cave to write the script for the Gladiator sequel, which he did, and he called it "Gladiator II: Christ Killer" and had him time travel to the Vietnam war
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
HA, I learned that from Nick Cave himself when he came to Ottawa for a book event. He just sat up there on the stage explaining the plot to an increasingly baffled audience, it was great.
I guess the PLOT is pretty straightforward, but this being a sequel to Gladiator is a bit WTF. I mean, it starts out with him being resurrected from the dead and then time traveling. (Also, Cave's recreation of his phone conversation with Crowe about the idea was hilarious and odd.)
As @polygon.com reports, Crowe wasn't exactly thrilled about the result. But I mean, dude. You asked Nick Cave for a script and he gave you a Nick Cave-ass script, what were you expecting
Just imagining Nick Cave sitting in a bare room with a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, staring at a typewriter with the words GLADIATOR II printed on the page for an hour. And then hitting enter and writing CHRIST KILLER and laughing maniacally
This script sounds so terrible it would be incredibly good as some sort of comedy thriller movie that has a plot so bad it is funny and excitingly weird.
ok not to be the bad brain podcaster but I did an episode on this and World of Reel always get so many little things wrong like:
1) it wasn't a "recent" episode of WTF where Nick Cave spoke about this, it was 2013
2) it's not a "dying warrior" that Maximus comes back thru, it's a helpless Christian
3) the script was written in 2003 (there's one article that said it was written in 2006, which everyone quotes, but in 2006 Nick Cave said he wrote it "3 years ago")
4) it didn't "sit on a shelf", Dreamworks turned it down almost immediately (Scott says they made a decent job of presenting it)
anyway World Of Reel always gives me the ick but linking to the full screenplay while clearly not having read it (it's very different to Cave's summary) is particularly low effort.
Kind of wondering what Crowe expected, how else was he supposed to come back? Unless Gladiator 2 became a reboot or just changed the story and re-used him as a similar character or what, I don't know how he thought he'd realistically come back in a historical drama.
First Clapton lost his mind and I said nothing b/c I only like two of his songs
Then Morrissey went bananas and I thought "that's what they get for not preferring The Cure"
Then Nick Cave became suss and I thought "ohh nooo"
I mean, to be fair, if that concept had gone anywhere down the path to production, the producers would probably have had to make a huge settlement with Barry Sadler’s estate over the broad similarities to Casca: The Eternal Mercenary.
I'd love to read that. Nick Cave is a phenomenonal writer. The Red Hand Files, And the Ass Saw the Angel, the Death of Bunny Munro, and more are there to prove it.
Comments
But that bad I don't think is gonna wash off.
I guess I am confused who the Christ-Killer is, since WorldOfReel and Polygon seem to say it's Lucius and Maximus...
-Nick Cave
https://ia804601.us.archive.org/22/items/gladiator-2-script/Gladiator-2-script_text.pdf
-Both Russell Crowe and Nick Cave, interestingly enough
1) it wasn't a "recent" episode of WTF where Nick Cave spoke about this, it was 2013
2) it's not a "dying warrior" that Maximus comes back thru, it's a helpless Christian
4) it didn't "sit on a shelf", Dreamworks turned it down almost immediately (Scott says they made a decent job of presenting it)
if you want the truly low effort version of learning about this doomed film though...
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iosKfiFHpYObG0k1LH4hy?si=de0183e5dae748a8
Then Morrissey went bananas and I thought "that's what they get for not preferring The Cure"
Then Nick Cave became suss and I thought "ohh nooo"
·
1m
I would have watched the hell out of that. Especially if it would have starred that other NC, Nic Cage. 😂