DEADLINE: It will confirm your good judgment. He played a tough police detective with a tortured past named Bud White who became this symbol of masculinity. After the film played through, for awhile every pitch in Hollywood was, “imagine Bud White, as a blank.“

Gladiator II is Scott's biggest chance to prove to many that he is far from a spent force and can still craft groundbreaking movies.

Nearly 25 years after the first Gladiator stormed into movie theatres director Ridley Scott has called the sequel to the swords-and-sandals epic that starred Russell Crowe and won the Oscar for best picture his finest work as a filmmaker.