The famously abrasive Reed frequently clashed with Scott while on set. The plot of the film could have been very different had both Scott and Crowe not stuck to their guns when coming under pressure from the studio to make changes. One of the rejected suggestions involved the introduction of a sexual relationship between Maximus and Lucilla.
Fortunately, the pair believed it would have undermined the emotional turmoil and loss Maximus experiences in the film. Things were nearly very different for the character of Lucilla, too, as Jennifer Lopez auditioned for the role.
It came three years after starring in both the Selena biopic and Anaconda, and a year after releasing her debut album. The actress who was eventually cast, Connie Nielsen, contributed more than just her acting to the film. Nielsen is a keen linguist and historian, with a deep knowledge of Ancient Rome and the ability to speak eight languages.
She helped to keep the film historically accurate, and was regularly consulted on details throughout the shoot. There might be a sequel on the way now, but there were initially plans in place for an immediate follow up to capitalise on the success of the film. Producers enlisted singer songwriter Nick Cave to write a script and his idea for a second film was truly bonkers. As Maximus dies in the first film, the character in this prospective sequel is in purgatory, before he's sent down by the gods to kill Jesus Christ and stop him gaining popularity on earth.
Sadly, it never got past the development stage. The scene where Maximus fights Tigris of Gaul was already epic as it was, even before the addition of five tigers. They all entered the space through hidden trap doors, while Crowe stayed 15 feet away from them at all times. A vet was watching the entire time, ready to tranquillise the animals if necessary. Shot over a period of eighteen weeks.
For the main protagonist Maximus, Ridley Scott wanted a fresh face for the role, and Russell Crowe was cast. At least some of the Roman cavalry in the opening battle were real soldiers: this movie employed twenty members of the British Army's King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery.
King's Troop's horse-drawn ceremonial guns sometimes have to travel at high speed despite each weighing over a tonne and having no brakes, so the soldiers are required to be very skilled horse-riders. Amongst their responsibilities, were to composite real tigers filmed on bluescreen into the fight sequences, and adding smoke trails and extending the flight paths of the opening battle's flaming arrows.
They also used two thousand live actors and actresses to create a CGI crowd of about thirty-five thousand people. One of their major hurdles was to create a digital body double for the recently deceased Oliver Reed. With two weeks to go before filming, the actors and actresses were still complaining of problems with the script.
William Nicholson was brought to Shepperton Studios to make Maximus a more sensitive character, re-working his friendship with Juba, and developing the afterlife thread. Nicholson went back to David Franzoni 's original script, and reinstated a lot of the scenes that John Logan had taken out. Russell Crowe claimed that the shooting script was highly incomplete and many scenes and lines of dialogue were improvised between he and Ridley Scott during filming.
For example, Crowe suggested that Maximus share a motto "Strength and Honor" with his fellow soldiers. In Crowe's pitch the line was in Latin, Scott determined that it sounded better in English. Maximus' Spanish heritage meshes interestingly with his choice of arms. As a General riding with the cavalry of the Felix Legion, in the opening battle he wields a sword known as a "Spatha", popular among the continental tribes, especially in Spain and southern Gaul.
As a Gladiator, he uses a sword similar to the spatha in appearance, but shorter and broader. This weapon is known as the "Gladius Hispaniensis", and was adopted by the Roman infantry after Scipio's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in the second century B. Roman infantry wore the gladius on the right side.
This, facilitated by the short blade length, allowed the legionary to draw his weapon on the same side as his sword arm. Cross-drawing would be hindered by the scutum the large rectangular shield while in formation. Antonio Banderas was also considered for the role of Maximus. This movie is credited with sparking a revival in big historical epics. In the the years after its release, we have been given movies like Troy , King Arthur , Alexander , , Noah , Kingdom of Heaven , Robin Hood , and Exodus: Gods and Kings , the last three having been directed by Ridley Scott.
The first Best Picture Oscar winner to not also win for either writing or directing in fifty-one years. This last occurred with All the King's Men It would occur again just two years later with Chicago A small section of the background noise about five seconds , just before the battle in Germania, was taken from Zulu Heard was part of the Zulu warrior's taunting chant also used just before battle.
Although many costumes in the film were made of leather, Joaquin Phoenix was only given synthetic leather in order to accommodate his strict vegan lifestyle. David Franzoni was given a three-picture deal with DreamWorks, as writer and co-producer, on the strength of his work on Steven Spielberg 's Amistad One of his initial pitches was for this movie.
Ridley Scott claimed that Commodus watching Lucius sleep was not pedophilia, but rather meant to show Lucilia's fear of Commodus. The opening battle scenes in the forests of Germania were shot in three weeks in the Bourne Woods, near Farnham, Surrey, England. When Ridley Scott learned that the Forestry Commission planned to remove the forest, he convinced them to allow the battle scene to be shot there, and burn it down.
Commodus tells Lucius the tale of Emperor Claudius who was betrayed by his own family, as an analogy to his own situation. Jacobi played Senator Gracchus in this movie. In Malta, a replica of about one-third of Rome's Colosseum was built, to a height of fifty-two feet sixteen meters , mostly from plaster and plywood the other two-thirds and remaining height were added digitally. The reverse side of the complex supplied a rich assortment of Ancient Roman street furniture, colonnades, gates, statuary, and marketplaces for other filming requirements.
The complex was serviced by tented "costume villages" that had changing rooms, storage, armorers, and other facilities. The remainder of the building was added in digitally by using computer graphics imagery, using set-design blueprints and textures referenced from live-action, and rendered in three layers, to provide lighting flexibility for compositing in Flame and Inferno software.
In the Colosseum scenes, only the bottom two decks are actually filled with people. The other thousands of people are computer animated or are cardboard cut-outs. The prop snow in the opening battle scene and aftermath was created by using little pieces of rolled up paper. Jennifer Lopez auditioned for the role of Lucilla. To construct the arena where Maximus has his first fights, the crew used basic materials and local building techniques to manufacture the thirty-thousand-seat mud brick arena.
The Mill used 2, actors and actresses to create a computer generated crowd of 35, virtual actors and actresses that had to look believable and react to fight scenes. They accomplished this by shooting actors and actresses at different angles, giving various performances, and then mapping them onto cards, with motion-capture tools used to track their movements for three-dimensional compositing. One hundred suits of steel armor and five hundred fifty suits in polyurethane were made by Rod Vass and his company Armordillo.
The unique sprayed-polyurethane system was developed by Armordillo, and pioneered for this production. The Spanish dubbers claimed that "Trujillo doesn't combine the 'qualities' to be cradle of the gladiator. In a interview while promoting All the Money in the World , Christopher Plummer was asked if he had ever been approached by Ridley Scott before.
In the end, Scott cast Richard Harris, who would develop a fond friendship with Russell Crowe, with Crowe even turning up unannounced for the unveiling of a statue of Harris in Kilkee, County Clare, Ireland. He called out to him "Maximus"! It wasn't until the end of that scene when Maximus reveals his identity to Commodus.
Until that moment, no one knew his name was "Maximus". All of the props, sets, and costumes were manufactured by crew members, due to high costs and unavailability of the items. Russell Crowe 's Best Actor Oscar winning performance was the only nominee in the category in a Best Picture nominee that year. Over six weeks, production members scouted various locations within the extent of the Roman Empire before its collapse, including Italy, France, North Africa, and England.
While reading the script one morning two weeks into production, Joaquin Phoenix thought it made sense that Commodus would grow physically larger as his belief in his own power as Emperor increased. Phoenix also kept a sword in his hotel room. Russel Crowe's character is often refers to as a Spaniard, that would not have been accurate. At that time people who lived in Hispana were light complected and had red hair.
The Gauls were considered to be a fierce race and when the Romans conquered them the men were given the option of fighting in the Army or becoming Gladiators. When first announced, Arnold Schwarzenegger was being pursued to play Proximo. During a "surprisingly brief" pitch meeting with Steven Spielberg , David Franzoni told the Writers Guild of America that the director "really had three basic questions. My gladiator movie, it was about ancient Roman gladiators-not American, Japanese, whatever else?
Yes, I said. Taking place in the ancient Colosseum? Fighting with swords and animals to the death and such? Great, let's make the movie. Kirk Douglas saw this movie when it was first released and liked it, but said it was nowhere nearly as noble as Spartacus Despite winning the Oscar for best visual effects, critic Roger Ebert spoke in an interview with Charlie Rose that this movie had "bad special effects. Russell Crowe played Superman's father Jor El. Djimon Hounsou played Shazam the wizard.
Joaquin Phoenix played Joker, a dark motivation for Batman. Djimon Hounsou also played King Ricou in Aquaman. Historically speaking, Gladiators were owned and trained by Lanistae and kept at a Ludus. Neither elements were incorporated into the movie, and the character Proximo was never mentioned to be a Lanista by trade. The bust of the leader was originally painted, and not the bare carved stone in the tent, and around Rome throughout the movie. The paint just flaked off over time.
Over a three-month period, over 27, component pieces of armor were made. In dealing with the death a succession of Marcus Aurelius, this film covers much the same ground as The Fall of the Roman Empire. In that film, Commodus was played by Christopher Plummer.
Russell Crowe worked with Plummer just the previous year in The Insider. Trujillo, what Maximus describes to the Emperor as the place where his home is in the hills, is in present-day Spain, southwest of Madrid. The totem carried by one of the Germanic tribesmen in the opening scene is a Zardoz-mask from the film Zardoz painted grey.
Roger Ebert described Gladiator as looking "muddy, fuzzy, and indistinct" and criticized the writing for its "bitter, morose, and dull characters. This movie is a fictional account of ancient Roman history. Although historical consultants were hired to ensure some level of historic accuracy, many documented facts were purposely ignored for the sake of storytelling, and the film has received criticism for its anachronistic depiction of period clothing, art, weaponry and warfare tactics.
At least one historian quit during the production over the creative license taken by the makers, whereas another declined to be credited. Only the second DVD to sport a 6. The leather armor worn by Maximus when he first becomes a gladiator was originally made for Russ Tamblyn as the character Orm in the viking epic The Long Ships It was also been used in The Last Temptation of Christ as the uniform of a roman centurion and in Vikings by several characters, such as one of Ragnar's crew members.
Richard Harris was considered for the part of Proximo. The first fight in the Colosseum is called the "Battle of Carthage", to commemorate the Roman victory over the barbarian horde of the Punian commander Hannibal. Coincidentally, Ridley Scott 's next movie was Hannibal One of the first DVDs to be released in the U. Sven-Ole Thorsen was also in Conan the Barbarian opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger , whose character Conan became a slave and a gladiator after the murder of his parents.
This is the only movie to feature Oliver Reed and Richard Harris. The costumes of warriors, especially the helmets, were made in Peshawar by handicrafts men from fiberglass instead of any heavy metal. During the opening battle sequences, the barbarian chanting is the same as the warrior chanting in Zulu Ricardo Cruz , horse stunt specialist, took the white horse Montero that Russell Crowe rode to the Texas Hollywood Studios, Tabernas, Almeria, Spain, to be used as Captain Grisham's horse in the television series Queen of Swords , for which he was the series horse stunt coordinator.
Marcus Aurelius was one of four emperors who were of Spanish origin; the first two were Trajan who was the first non-Italian to be Roman emperor and his adopted son Hadrian. Theodosius was the other one, who reigned during the latter part of the Late Empire.
Connie Nielsen and Tommy Flanagan share the same birth date, July 3, Tom Sizemore auditioned for the part of Maximus. Filmmaker Atharv Goyal's personal favourite movie. In preparation for filming, Ridley Scott spent several months developing storyboards to develop the framework of the plot.
This movie shares its title with Gladiator , but it has no connection to that movie, which takes place in the world of illegal underground boxing. David Hemmings, who plays the dissolute Cassius, master of ceremonies at the Colosseum, was actually a British pop idol in the late 60s. The three main actors have all portrayed characters in the DC Universe.
Joaquin Phoenix portrayed the Joker in Joker. Curran plays Marcus Corvinus. Cameo Brian Blessed : A Collosseum spectator during the games. Blessed is best known for playing the Roman emperor Augustus in the acclaimed series I, Claudius Augustus was the grandfather of emperor Claudius, played by Sir Derek Jacobi , who portrayed Senator Gracchus in this movie. The way in which Reed made his exit sounds like an urban legend of the most ridiculous type, but his final hours are quite well-documented.
According to Variety , the actor had promised Scott that he wouldn't drink on filming days while shooting on location in Malta, and he kept that promise, only imbibing on weekends during breaks from shooting. One Saturday night, Reed held court at a local pub, which was also being visited by a group of five sailors on shore leave. Of course, the five burly guys immediately challenged the famously boozy actor to a drinking contest, so Reed proceeded to out-drink them all, by some accounts downing about eight pints of beer, a dozen shots of rum, half of a bottle of whiskey , and some cognac for good measure via Guide Me Malta.
T hen , Reed got it into his head to arm-wrestle all five of his new buddies, defeating them one by one. Shortly afterwards, the actor collapsed, and was later found to have suffered a heart attack. He passed away en route to the hospital, and Gladiator 's stunned cast and crew spent the rest of the shoot in mourning After a minor adjustment to the ever-evolving script, two scenes were shot which would complete Proximo's arc.
In the first, Proximo visits a jailed Maximus, whose plan to escape and reunite with his still-loyal armies was discovered by Commodus. This scene was by far the most difficult to achieve, and it was done with the kind of digital trickery that is commonplace today, but which was practically unheard of 20 years ago.
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