20 Things You Didn’t Know About Gladiator

20. Spielberg Approved The Original Pitch

Incredibly, original screenwriter David Franzoni came across the book 'Those Who Are About to Die' by Daniel P. Mannix when travelling around the world after college in the 1970s. Two decades later, given a three-picture deal with DreamWorks in recognition of his work on Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Gladiator was his first pitch.

Franzioni's meeting with Spielberg was short but sweet - supposedly, the celebrated director only had three questions for him:

"My gladiator movie, it was about ancient Roman gladiators - not American, Japanese, whatever else? Yes, I said. Taking place in the ancient Colosseum? Yes. Fighting with swords and animals to the death and such? Yes. Great, let's make the movie."

Franzioni's original script was much more historically accurate. His protagonist was a gladiator called Narcissus, the man who actually strangled Commodus, and Lucilla was, as in real life, executed inside a brazen bull, an infamous Greek torture and execution device made of bronze in which its victims were roasted alive.