Russell Crowe jokes he'll return as Maximus in Gladiator 2 as corpse lying under Colosseum
Russell Crowe has joked he’ll return as General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the Gladiator sequel — as a corpse lying “six feet under” the Colosseum.
The 58-year-old actor won an Oscar for playing the vengeful Roman commander in Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic and has said he won’t be starring in the long-awaited follow-up, set 20 years after the first film.
Crowe joked on The Jonathan Ross Show: “I think when they’re shooting in the Colosseum and stuff, I’ll be lying like six feet underground... you won’t see me, but I’ll be there beneath the ground… .”
Russell added he had spoken with Scott, 85, about the sequel, but they had concluded his character was better left dead.
“I’ve had a couple of dinners with Ridley since he embarked on this, we haven’t really talked about what he’s doing," said Crowe who has worked with the director four more times after Gladiator in 2006's A Good Year, 2007's American Gangster, 2008's Body of Lies and 2010's Robin Hood.
“But no, I’m not involved. Maximus has departed the world… ." he added.
Gladiator 2 will follow the adventures of Paul Mescal, a recent Best Actor Oscar nominee for Aftersun, as an older version of Lucius, the nephew of since-deceased Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) who was killed by Maximus. Lucius is the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and the grandson of Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). According to reports, Denzel Washington and Barry Keoghan are in talks to join the sequel.
No word on when production will start but the film already has a release date set in on Nov 22, 2024 (in the US).
Russell also said shooting his latest film The Pope’s Exorcist — a horror based on the exploits of Father Gabriele Amorth, the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican — in Rome was the first time he had filmed in the city.
He said “The funny thing is, a lot of people assume I’ve done a lot of filming in Rome… we shot ‘the other gig’ [Gladiator] in London and then Morocco. “The ‘Colosseum’ for us was in Malta. This film was my first time ever shooting in the city of Rome.”
Russell also shared how his role as Maximus got him and The Pope’s Exorcist crew out of a sticky situation after the local authorities had closed a major bridge for them, but filming had overrun.
He said: “They didn’t say anything. I thought they’d come up to us hands waving… [but] they were cool about it.
“And then when it was finished I was like, ‘Thanks very much for keeping the bridge open’ and this guy was like, ‘No problem, Maximus.’”
Watch Russell's interview with Ross below; The Pope's Exorcist opens in cinemas on Thursday (Apr 6).
— BANG SHOWBIZ
Photos: TPG News/Click Photos
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