By Last March director Ridley Scott spoke of a (frankly dreadful sounding) follow-up to his 2000 film Gladiator.
It seemed that Scott was undeterred by lead actor Russell Crowe's untimely end in the iconic film and was discussing a way to bring him back, with reports he was working on a script that saw Maximus traversing through the afterlife.
Thankfully, the Blade Runner director appears to have seen sense with the news of an infinitely better sounding sequel to the film which won an impressive five Academy Awards.
Deadline reports that, "Gladiator 2 will follow the continuing story of Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), The youth was the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the weaselly son of Roman leader Marcus Aurelius who murdered his father seized the throne and wound up in the gladiator ring with Maximus, who though mortally wounded, skewered the emperor before fading into the great beyond to reunite with his slain wife and son. Maximus saved the boy and his mother while avenging his own family, and left a strong impression on the young Lucius."
The film is expected to be made under Scott's production company Scott Free, and Peter Craig (The Town) will write the script for the film made with Paramount. No word on whether Phoenix or Nielsen will be reprising their roles.
There's no expected date but Scott is currently working on a sci-fi series about androids raising human children in an outer space colony called Raised By Wolves and a film staring Scarlett Johansson about photojournalist Lyndsey Addario.
That said you might not have to wait forever as Deadline report that, "Gladiator 2 could happen very quickly".
