Films

When everyone is watching Gladiator II next month, just keep in the back of your mind what the story could have been.

One concept that reached a fairly advanced stage of development was called Christ Killer, scripted by Nick Cave, in which Maximus is resurrected from purgatory and sent back to Earth to kill Jesus. He then gets stuck into the Crusades, the second world war and Vietnam before finding employment at the Pentagon. Despite Crowe’s enthusiasm, the idea was eventually scrapped by the studio.