“At first you will be disorientated and confused, and, indeed, a little vexed. It is to be expected. But direct your anger elsewhere. I am a friend. Let me help you stand…” – Mordecai, Gladiator II

As well as taking half a billion dollars at the box office, winning five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor, and creating more memorable quotes than most movies have dialogue, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is often credited as resurrecting the ancient historical epic – a setting largely absent from cinema screens since the 1960s.

Russell Crowe asked his fellow Australian, singer-songwriter Nick Cave, to pen a sequel. When Cave brought up the little inconvenience of Crowe’s character dying at the end of the film, Crowe replied: “Yeah, you sort that out.” And he did. This was of course the sequel that never was.