Nick Cave’s Gladiator sequel makes a comeback
Fans of iconic writer and musician Nick Cave will be thankful he didn’t turn his back on screenwriting after his script for a sequel of the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator was rejected by the studio.
The death of Maximus was no obstacle to Cave’s imagination as he called on the Roman gods to bestow immortal life on the character played by Russell Crowe so that his adventures could continue. . . up to the present day!
As reported by The Guardian, it was Crowe and Scott who had invited Cave to write a sequel, probably following the critical acclaim for his script and soundtrack to the 2005 movie The Proposition.
Nick Cave too cool for Hollywood?
A summary of Cave’s Gladiator script, recently published in the blogosphere, has Maximus reincarnated as an eternal warrior who defends early Christians, is reunited with his son, and ends up in the modern-day Pentagon. But the Bad Seed’s resurrection of the first Roman screen hero in nearly a decade was apparently too far-fetched for the studio.
Crow and Scott have been more recently in Wales, shooting Scott’s latest blockbuster about the outlaw Robin Hood.
The Guardian reported that Scott told UGO, “We tried [to go with Cave's script]. Russell didn’t want to let it go, obviously, because it worked very well. When I say ‘worked very well’, I don’t refer to success. I mean, as a piece it works very well. Storytelling, [it] works brilliantly. I think [Cave] enjoyed doing it, and I think it was one of those things that he thought, ‘Well, maybe there’s a sequel where we can adjust the fantasy and bring [Maximus] back from the dead.’”
Anyone who has seen The Proposition, starring English-born Australian actor Guy Pearce of Memento fame, will be yearning for another screen outing by Cave. His minimal and haunting soundtrack could be said to rival Neil Young’s accompaniment to Dead Man, the Jim Jarmusch western starring Johnny Depp. It is possible that Depp’s character, the reincarnation of the poet William Blake as a reluctant, death-cheating gunslinger, even inspired Cave to take the idea of rebirth a stage further. It’s a theme never more topical, as mankind faces an increasing threat of annihilation.
I recently happened upon the cult science fiction novel Mission by Patrick Tilley which features a character who we suppose is Christ returning to the present day as a nameless victim who arrives on a hospital trolley with unexplained wounds to the hands and feet.
The fact that this brilliant and inspiring book, which lay forgotten for more than 20 years, is being marketed once again gives me hope that someone will eventually write a screenplay that tackles the big questions of life and death, good and evil, while truly representing the world around us.
Don’t ask me why, but I immediately saw actor Michael Sheen in the role of this confused, tortured time traveller. He even twittered back after I recommended the book, so I live in hope! And if an angry and disappointed Nick Cave ever gets around to reading this blog, he has a suggestion for an intriguing project!
Cave earlier told Variety, “I’m very comfortable in my day job as a musician. The last thing I ever wanted to get involved with is Hollywood. The way it works is that people get an idea you could possibly do something, but there’s a one-in-a-hundred chance that it could get made. It’s a waste of fucking time, and I have a lot to do.” He has obviously since reconsidered, as his Death of a Ladies’ Man is in pre-production.
The Gone Elsewhere blog claims to have a synopsis of Cave ’s “Gladiator II” script so you can form your own opinion. Credit also to the Pitchfork music news site for its update.
Tags: Bad Seeds, cinema, film, Gladiator, Nick Cave, Ridley Scott, Robin Hood, Russell Crowe, The Proposition
Categories:
culture
