Unleash hell! How Gladiator went from on-set disasters to box office glory

[snoop1130]

Unleash hell! How Gladiator went from on-set disasters to box office glory

 

Russell Crowe in Gladiator, renowned for tensions behind the scenes but the second highest grossing film of 2000. Photograph: Allstar/Dreamworks/Sportsphoto Ltd

 

Name: Behind-the-scenes disasters.

 

Age: Eternal. As old as art itself. Prehistoric man (and, of course, woman) probably came to blows about what colour the bison on the cave walls should be.

Anything more recent? There’s Gladiator, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

 

Ah, what a film. Wasn’t Russell Crowe wonderful? Indeed. But it was also one of those movies where the off-camera battles were almost as bloody as the on-camera ones.

 

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/film/shortcuts/2020/may/12/unleash-hell-how-gladiator-went-from-on-set-disasters-to-box-office-glory

[DrTuner]

My favourite movie. I'm scared they'll totally spoil it with a crappy sequel. Let it be.

Edited May 13, 2020 by DrTuner

[rasmus5150]

Great movie, horrible article ...

[bendejo]

I recently saw a documentary about the making of Galaxy Quest which was being made by the same studio at the same time.

It explained that a problem is producers constantly looking over your shoulder, demanding changes, playing power games etc.  Gladiator was a big-budget production and they were counting on a big box office success.  When Oliver Reed died the studio bosses went into a big panic, flying off to Europe, putting all their energies into figuring out what to do etc.  So no one was really paying attention to the Galaxy Quest production, which worked out well for the project.

 

 

[Kinnock]

4 hours ago, rasmus5150 said:

Great movie, horrible article ...

Yes, what a clunky piece of disjointed writing.

 

But the movie has one of the best monologues ever ....

 

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

 

[Kerryd]

That article was pathetic. Spent more time going on about other movies (Gone With the Wind, Titanic and the Wizard of Oz) than it did about Gladiator.

So one supporting actor died during filming (not on set). That wasn't a "disaster". 

Scripts being re-written ? That literally happens on almost every movie ever made. It's not like it was a complicated script to begin with. Hero betrayed, bad guy gets the rewards, hero gets revenge and kills the bad guy. Hero dies so he can spend eternity with his wife and child.

An actor improvising a line is a "disaster" ?? That shi* happens all the time as well, but you usually only hear about it if it makes the final cut. Otherwise it's left on the floor of the editing room (back in the days when they still used film). Deleted Bin these days. Or on the blooper reel.

The only kind of sequel they could do would be something where the kid (Lucius) grows up to become Emperor and does something significant (using the spirit of Maximus to guide him of course).
(Note: After the death of the real Emperor Commodus in 192 AD there was the "Year of the 5 Emperors" as 5 different people laid claim to the title in 1 year. The real Commodus never had any children.)

Reading on Wiki, it seems they've been trying t get a sequel going ever since 2001. Seems many of the ideas were "too complicated" or "too far fetched" but they are currently working on something set 25-30 years after the first movie, involving Lucius (ha ! I thought so.) and a "resurrected" Maximus. One idea is that Lucius is actually Maximus's child with Lucilla (the sister of Commodus). They did seem fond of each other in the movie........

One of the "far fetched" ideas was (ROTFLMAO) to have the Roman Gods resurrect Maximus so he could (even more ROFL) defend the "persecuted" Christians in Rome (who, at the time, were the ones doing the persecution as they tried to overthrow those same Roman Gods and replace them with their "new god") !

Then, after presumably saving the Christians (and enabling their wholesale slaughter of heathens and pagans for centuries to come) Maximus would be "time-ported" (my word) to other periods including WW II, Vietnam and as a general in the modern day Pentagon.

Let's hope they don't go with that idea. Ever.
 

[TPI]

19 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

That article was pathetic. Spent more time going on about other movies (Gone With the Wind, Titanic and the Wizard of Oz) than it did about Gladiator.

So one supporting actor died during filming (not on set). That wasn't a "disaster". 

Scripts being re-written ? That literally happens on almost every movie ever made. It's not like it was a complicated script to begin with. Hero betrayed, bad guy gets the rewards, hero gets revenge and kills the bad guy. Hero dies so he can spend eternity with his wife and child.

An actor improvising a line is a "disaster" ?? That shi* happens all the time as well, but you usually only hear about it if it makes the final cut. Otherwise it's left on the floor of the editing room (back in the days when they still used film). Deleted Bin these days. Or on the blooper reel.

The only kind of sequel they could do would be something where the kid (Lucius) grows up to become Emperor and does something significant (using the spirit of Maximus to guide him of course).
(Note: After the death of the real Emperor Commodus in 192 AD there was the "Year of the 5 Emperors" as 5 different people laid claim to the title in 1 year. The real Commodus never had any children.)

Reading on Wiki, it seems they've been trying t get a sequel going ever since 2001. Seems many of the ideas were "too complicated" or "too far fetched" but they are currently working on something set 25-30 years after the first movie, involving Lucius (ha ! I thought so.) and a "resurrected" Maximus. One idea is that Lucius is actually Maximus's child with Lucilla (the sister of Commodus). They did seem fond of each other in the movie........

One of the "far fetched" ideas was (ROTFLMAO) to have the Roman Gods resurrect Maximus so he could (even more ROFL) defend the "persecuted" Christians in Rome (who, at the time, were the ones doing the persecution as they tried to overthrow those same Roman Gods and replace them with their "new god") !

Then, after presumably saving the Christians (and enabling their wholesale slaughter of heathens and pagans for centuries to come) Maximus would be "time-ported" (my word) to other periods including WW II, Vietnam and as a general in the modern day Pentagon.

Let's hope they don't go with that idea. Ever.
 

Damn you for even bringing it up! ????

[Kerryd]

9 minutes ago, TPI said:

Damn you for even bringing it up! ????

I started reading up on the movie, then the characters, then the real life characters and the next thing I know my coffee is cold and it's been like 1 1/2 hours since I started ! I'd still be reading except that I've got some other things to do (like getting a fresh cup of coffee for starters, maybe some food too).

[Kinnock]

A prequel would be better.  Lucilla visits the Felix Legions camp in Londinium and finds out why their commander is called Maximus.

[Don Mega]

What posses a person to write this dribble ?

[Kerryd]

18 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

A prequel would be better.  Lucilla visits the Felix Legions camp in Londinium and finds out why their commander is called Maximus.

Apparently there was discussion of a prequel at one point, as a way of having Maximus in it without the complexities of "time travel" or "coming back from the dead" that sequels would (will) have. The idea didn't seem to go very far though.

Problem with prequels is you already know how they are going to end. 
Same story for Game of Thrones. If they did any prequels, you already know who Jon Snow's real parents are and that Ned Stark is going to lose his head no matter what.
(Still, they could go back a couple hundred years earlier where the fates of "current" characters wouldn't be important.)

Of course the other problem with a prequel is, making an actor look noticeably younger than he was in the film he made 20 years ago ! Too much CGI spoils it (like when they CGI'd Henry Cavill's moustache out for the Superman movie, because he had one for the Mission Impossible role he was also filming).

Trying to make the current 56 year old Crowe look younger in a prequel than the 36 year old Crowe from Gladiator might be stretching things a bit too much.

[Redoubt]

I never learned if the sound effects presented as that famous line "Unleash hell..." was being delivered ever credited the fantastic classic movie 'Zulu'; from the 1960's.  The actual contemporary 'Zulu war chants' recorded in South Africa were apparently superimposed in The Gladiator film as if the impending Germanic Tribal hoards of warriors were voicing the African Zulu war chants themselves so many centuries ago in Germania.

 

[Dap]

12 hours ago, bendejo said:

I recently saw a documentary about the making of Galaxy Quest which was being made by the same studio at the same time.

It explained that a problem is producers constantly looking over your shoulder, demanding changes, playing power games etc.  Gladiator was a big-budget production and they were counting on a big box office success.  When Oliver Reed died the studio bosses went into a big panic, flying off to Europe, putting all their energies into figuring out what to do etc.  So no one was really paying attention to the Galaxy Quest production, which worked out well for the project.

 

 

Besides being and incredibly entertaining movie (Galaxy Quest) ... to boot 

[Kinnock]

3 hours ago, Redoubt said:

I never learned if the sound effects presented as that famous line "Unleash hell..." was being delivered ever credited the fantastic classic movie 'Zulu'; from the 1960's.  The actual contemporary 'Zulu war chants' recorded in South Africa were apparently superimposed in The Gladiator film as if the impending Germanic Tribal hoards of warriors were voicing the African Zulu war chants themselves so many centuries ago in Germania.

 

Just watch the clip again ...  and oh yeah ..... Zulu!  I never noticed before.