'Gladiator' writer gets honest about upcoming sequel

The much-anticipated sequel of Gladiator will see shades of the original story as its writer recently explained.

During an interview with Empire, David Scarpa, who wrote the screenplay of the forthcoming film, said Lucius (Paul Mescal) shares the hatred of Maximus (Russel Crowe) for Rome.

"The idea was to invert the whole first movie entirely. The first movie starts with Maximus, who’s a Roman general battling a barbarian army, he said.

David continued, "My notion was that we would begin the [second] movie looking at a young man who has joined a barbarian army, and he’s facing off against the Romans."

"He has the same unspoken anger and loathing for Rome [as Maximus did], so we’re watching echoes of the same man, but almost his opposite number."

In the same interview, director Ridley Scott said Gladitor was his career's best work. "It's the best thing I've ever made," adding, "Though [I have] made several other great movies."