Christopher Rosen

When costume designer and celebrity stylist Negar Ali-Kline first heard about what would become Erin Foster’s breakout Netflix hit “Nobody Wants This,” she knew it would be a special project. “I fe…

Costume designers Ernesto Martinez, Luca Mosca, and Negar Ali-Kline share a mutual respect and admiration for their respective peers’ work that can only come from the experience of being in the tre…

The streaming services are happy to look ahead to 2025. Two days after HBO and Max released a sizzle reel to tease the network's upcoming

The streaming services are happy to look ahead to 2025. Two days after HBO and Max released a sizzle reel to tease the network’s upcoming shows – including Season 4 of “Hacks,” Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” and Season 2 of “The Last of Us” – Disney+ and Hulu have unveiled its stable of …

Bridget Jones is back. On Tuesday, Peacock released the first trailer for “ Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy ,” the fourth film in the

Skip to content Best Original Screenplay Anora The Brutalist A Real Pain Best Director Sean Baker Brady Corbet Jacques Audiard Best Animated Feature The Wild Robot Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Oscars Nominations 2025 Predictions Best Picture Anora The Brutalist Conclave Best Actress Mikey Madison Karla Sofia Gascon Angelina Jolie Best Actor Adrien Brody Ralph Fiennes Colman Domingo Best Supporting Actress Zoe Saldana Danielle Deadwyler Felicity Jones Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin Guy Pearce Denzel Washington Best Adapted Screenplay Conclave Sing Sing Nickel Boys Best Original Screenplay Anora The Brutalist A Real Pain Best Director Sean Baker Brady Corbet Jacques Audiard Best Animated Feature The Wild Robot Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Oscars Nominations 2025 Predictions Best Picture Anora The Brutalist Conclave Best Actress Mikey Madison Karla Sofia Gascon Angelina Jolie ‘Gladiator II' screenwriter David Scarpa on solving the puzzle of writing the long-awaited sequel November 12, 2024 1:00PM The seeds for what would become “ Gladiator II” were first planted in the summer of 2001, months after “Gladiator” won Best Picture at the Oscars. At the time, there was discussion about extending the Roman epic with a prequel that would include the deceased Maximus (Oscar winner Russell Crowe ) and detail the true parentage of Lucius (played in the original film by Spencer Treat Clark ). Executive producer Walter F. Parkes floated another idea that could work for the sequel the following year: a prequel to follow Lucius and then a sequel that focused on the resurrection of Maximus. Then, in 2003, Scott suggested the “Gladiator” sequel would focus solely on Lucius with the idea to release the film in 2005. “It's the next generation. Roman history is so exotic that any part of it is really fascinating,” Scott said at the time. But almost 18 years would pass before “ Gladiator II ” ever went into production. “It didn't have a script,” Scott said in 2023. “We tried, actually, four years ago, and I chose a very good writer who couldn't get his head around it. He wrestled. He was terribly upset that he didn't deliver. He's a friend of mine. I said, ‘You're not getting there?' He said, ‘No.'” Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview, Scott suggested that finding a screenwriter for the project was the most difficult part. “Writers were afraid to take it on,” Scott told the outlet. Fortunately, no one told that to “I wasn't aware that the other writers were afraid. Maybe if I did, I would have been afraid too,” Scarpa, the credited screenwriter on “Gladiator II” ( Peter Craig and Scarpa each share a story credit), tells Gold Derby. “But I just sort of said yes, and then figured we figured that out as we go.” Set two decades after the events of the original film — which ended when Maximus killed Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix ) in the arena to bring peace to Rome — “Gladiator II” now focuses on Lucius, who is played by Oscar nominee . In the film timeline, the character has been kept hidden from the Roman Empire because of his connection to Marcus Aurelius (the late Richard Harris in the original film). But a fter Lucius's wife is murdered during an attack by the Roman Army, he becomes a prisoner of war – and, perhaps unsurprisingly, winds in a stable of gladiator fighters overseen by the treacherous Marcinus (Oscar winner Denzel Washington ). Driven by revenge, Lucius must contend with all manner of political and physical violence while also standing in the shadow of his real father, Maximus. That Lucius is Maximus's secret son – an idea very lightly suggested in the original film but never explicitly stated – was one of the ways Scarpa managed to find his way into the script. “I think unconsciously, they sort of left [Lucius's parentage] ambiguous,” Scarpa says of the original film, written by David Franzoni John Logan , and William Nicholson . “And so my attitude was, instead of thinking of this the way conventional sequels are done – which is,' Die Hard,' and same guy comes along and now he's in an airport or whatever it is – I thought of it like ‘The Illiad' and ‘The Odyssey.' So ‘The Odyssey' is effectively a sequel to ‘The Iliad,' but it's a completely different thing, and it takes place after a long span of time. In a way, part of the idea of the story is to use that duration of time to interrogate what are the generational consequences of the choices that Maximus has made – as opposed to simply having the same guy coming back and doing all the same stuff.” The lack of repetition extended elsewhere for Scarpa. The script for the original film had several iconic lines of dialogue that are still repeated today – none more famous than when Maximus taunts a fevered crowd by shouting, “Are you not entertained?” Scarpa's “Gladiator II” script does not repeat the catchphrase, nor any of the other famous lines from the film. (Those hoping for a repeat of “I'm terribly vexed” will not find any vexing in the new film.) “I think there's always a temptation to include callbacks like that. Luckily, Ridley doesn't like doing that and he doesn't like taking the easy road and doing the greatest hits album,” Scarpa says. “That's fortunate because I think if you were to simply go back and sort of repeat catchphrases, you're just doing it for the fans. It's easy, but it's just not earned. I think we were very focused just on telling the best possible story and making it work on its own terms, and letting everything come organically.” Besides, as Scarpa notes, the original writers didn't think they were writing catchphrases anyway. “They simply were trying to tell the best story and bring the character to life. And so that's really what you want to do the second time around as well: tell the best story you can. And I think audiences know when you're pandering to them in a lot of ways, and in a way, they respect you a little bit more if you don't do that.” Scarpa has worked with Scott on several projects in recent years, including “All the Money in the World” and last year's “Napoleon.” The screenwriter says he loves how decisive the 86-year-old filmmaker is in his choices, even if he can't quite keep up with Scott's prolific output. The director – still searching for his first-ever Oscar win after four nominations – has spoken already about the potential for “Gladiator III” and has several projects already lined up (including another film with Mescal and a biopic about the Bee Gees). “He's already sort of mapped it out in his own head, you know?” Scarpa says of “Gladiator III. “I mean, luckily I don't work as hard as him, so I don't have to sweat it quite as much. But, you know, I can assure you that it's going to happen.” Pressed for details on what “Gladiator III” might look like, Scarpa is loathe to spoil “Gladiator II.” But the writer says that unlike the first film, which “walled off” the world by killing Maximus and Commodus, “Gladiator II” leaves room for further exploration. “It's inevitably just like ‘The Godfather' in a way. It does set up this question of, where is this guy gonna go throughout the rest of his life,” he says. “Lucius is only just beginning.” Oscar Best Picture gallery: History of every Academy Award-winning movie Leave a Reply Notifications View Settings Close ad We Care About Your Privacy We and our partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting "I Accept" enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under "we and our partners process data to provide," whereas selecting "Reject All" or withdrawing your consent will disable them. 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