THR is reporting that Ridley Scott is returning to the world of "Gladiator."
No, this is not The Onion. The Oscar-winning director is indeed moving forward on a followup of the best picture winner, which would follow Lucius (son of Lucilla and the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix's villainous Commodus). If you remember, Maximus saved the boy from his uncle in the 2000 film.
Writer Peter Craig (The Crown, Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1 & 2) will write the screenplay with Scott returning to direct.
Last year Scott told ME Movies that he had found a way to bring Russell Crowe's Maximus back to life, "I know how to bring him [Maxiums] back. I was having this talk with the studio — Whether it will happen I don’t know. 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."
Scott said Maximus would use the "portal of a dying warrior" to come back from the dead, whatever that means. Nick Cave had written the script for the unlikely sequel, but, according to Scott, it's been sitting on the DreamWorks shelf for close to 10 years now. Cave's screenplay seems to have been scrapped altogether for Craig's take. The question remains whether Crowe will be back.