Gladiator Director Ridley Scott Is Working On Script For Sequel

Two decades after Gladiator was originally released, it's still held up as a high point in cinema.

Set in AD 180, the film follows Russell Crowe's character, General Maximus Decimus Meridius, as he challenges the new Roman emperor and finds himself locked in the life-or-death world of gladiator fighting.

While the film's dramatic conclusion brought a fitting end to the story - and if you haven't seen it, be warned: SPOILERS lie ahead in this article - it seems there are plenty of folks in Hollywood who are keen to push forward with a sequel.

In fact, original director Ridley Scott is hard at work trying to get a script together, according to one of the film's producers Doug Wick.

"It's just really a clear creative problem, working on a script, and if we can ever get it to a place... Ridley's working on it, it's really just a question of whether we can get it to a place where it feels worthy to make it. It's a real challenge.

"But it's also a real writing problem, too. Like any good movie, Gladiator works by the skin of its teeth, where this fight movie ends up adding up that way, and so, again, to take the best of what the audience is attached to, but make it fresh in some new incarnation, it's really challenging.

"And, of course, the leading man is dead. If you do Godfather, you say, 'Okay, the audience loves these stars in this wardrobe,' and you bring back the old team."

There have been rumours for years about a possible sequel and the plot has once been suggested to focus on Lucius, son of Lucilla (played by Connie Nielson in the original) and nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).

Producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have said the project will probably be set 25 years after the original film ended. That would give enough time for Lucilla to get into adulthood and decide whether he wants to be like Commodus or Maximus.

That would make sense considering Crowe's character dies in the original movie (that's a pretty big spoiler). However, that hasn't stopped Scott dabbling with the idea of getting Maximus in the film.

"Gladiator was 2000, so Russell's changed a little bit. He's doing something right now but I'm trying to get him back down here."

Only time will tell if it actually happens.