How Russell Crowes Gladiator defied death, fire, tigersand a rubbish scriptto become a Hollywood classic

Are you not entertained?The tale of making “Gladiator” is every bit as epic as the movie itself.Twenty-four years after the film’s release, director Ridley Scott has brought a hotly-anticipated sequel starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn along with Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi reprising their roles from the first film. The 2000 movie reinvigorated the swords-and-sandals genre, inspiring other historical action dramas like “Troy.”It became the second highest grossing movie of the year – raking in $465.4 million, not adjusted for inflation – and was the most-nominated film at the 2001 Academy Awards with 12 nods, and 5 wins, including Best Actor for Russell Crowe and Best Picture.Oscar glory was certainly not a feat it was expected to ever attain upon its release in May 2000. The historic success of “Gladiator” is all the more dramatic because it was, well, a disaster to make. So before jumping off your chariot to see “Gladiator II,” here’s a look back at how “Gladiator” defied the odds to become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome. “At the core of what we were doing was a great concept, but the script, it was rubbish.

Absolute rubbish,” Russell Crowe told Vanity Fair in 2023.“I did think, a couple times, maybe my best option is just to get on a plane and get out of here, you know?”Even more troubling was the fact that the rubbish script was less than a quarter finished. “When we actually started that film, we had 21 pages of the script that we agreed on,” he said.

“A script is usually between 103 or 104, 110 pages, something like that, so we had a long way to go, and we basically used up those pages in the first section of the movie.So, by the time we got to our second location, which was Morocco, we were sort of catching up.”Scott ended up having to give crew members extra days off because they didn’t know what they would be filming the next day. “It’s the dumbest possible way to make a fil...