NICK CAVE - CROWE ASKED CAVE TO PEN GLADIATOR SEQUEL

CROWE ASKED CAVE TO PEN GLADIATOR SEQUEL

A lost screenplay goth rocker NICK CAVE wrote for a proposed GLADIATOR sequel has been unearthed by a British newspaper.
The Guardian reports Gladiator star Russell Crowe personally invited the singer/songwriter to come up with a storyline for a sequel to the 2000 blockbuster, which was set in ancient Rome and won the actor an Oscar.
Cave crafted a new story, in which Crowe's dead character battles with Roman gods in the afterlife and is reincarnated, but the project was scrapped.
Now, three years later, fans have discovered the lost screenplay and alerted the newspaper.
And director Ridley Scott has confirmed the script is authentic: "Russell didn’t want to let it go, obviously, because it worked very well... I think he (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 (character) Maximus back from the dead.'"
Since tackling the Gladiator sequel, Cave has won acclaim for penning the screenplay for vengeance tale The Proposition and he's also responsible for writing forthcoming film Death of a Ladies’ Man.
He also briefly appeared in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.