Trivia for
                      Gladiator (2000)

Like modern day athletes, ancient Roman gladiators did product
endorsements. The producers considered including this in the
script but discarded the idea as unbelievable.

Russell Crowe began shooting for Gladiator a few months after
Insider, The (1999) wrapped. He had gained upwards of 40 pounds
for his Oscar-nominated role in The Insider and yet lost it all
before Gladiator began. He claims he did nothing special other
than normal work on his farm in Australia.

Lou Ferrigno was original cast as Tigris of Gaul, but was replaced
during production by Sven-Ole Thorsen who had been lobbying hard
for the part.

Connie Nielsen found the 2000-year-old signet ring which she wears
in the movie in an antique store.

Oliver Reed suffered a fatal heart attack during filming. Some of
his sequences had to be re-edited and a double, photographed in
the shadows and with a 3D CGI mask of Reed's face, was used as a
stand-in. The film is dedicated to his memory.

Among the chanting of the Germanic hordes at the beginning of the
film are samples of the Zulu war chant from the film Zulu (1964).

In the Spanish dubbed version Maximus says he is from Emerita
Augusta (now called Merida). The Spanish dubbers claimed that,
"Trujillo doesn't combine the 'qualities' to be cradle of the
gladiator."

The wounds on Russell Crowe's face after the opening battle scene
are real, caused when his horse startled and backed him into tree
branches. The stitches in his cheek are clearly visible when he is
telling Commodus he intends to return home.

Maximus' (Russell Crowe) description of his home (specifically how
the kitchen is arranged and smells in morning and night) was
ad-libbed - it's a description of Russell Crowe's own home in
Australia.

In the Colosseum scenes, only the bottom two decks are actually
filled with people. The other thousands of people are
computer-animated.

Character actor Sven Ole Thorsen not only played Tigris the Gaul,
but doubled as one of the spectators during that same battle.

The yak helmet worn by the gladiator who was slain by Hagen, is
the same one worn by the warrior, slain by Sean Connery, in Time
Bandits (1981).

Some of the battle music on the soundtrack interpolates variations
on "Mars, the Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's "The Planets".

During filming, director Ridley Scott wore the red cap worn by
Gene Hackman in the movie Crimson Tide, which was directed by
Ridley's brother, Tony Scott.

Richard Harris, who plays Marcus Aurelius, was originally set to
play Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) (but left the
film due to artistic differences with director Anthony Mann and
was replaced by Christopher Plummer).

Derek Jacobi, who plays Gracchus in this film, played Claudius in
the very BBC TV show "I, Claudius" (1976)

The real-life Commodus was in fact the only Roman Emperor in
history to fight as a gladiator in the arena.  However, he did it
several times, not just once; also, he was not killed in the
arena, but rather strangled in his dressing room by an athlete
named Narcissus.

Although much of the movie is fictitious, it's interesting to note
that emperor Commodus' historically accurate killer, Narcissus,
was born in the same Roman African province as the one in the
movie where Maximus becomes a gladiator.

In the original drafts of the script, the name of the main
character was not "Maximus," but "Narcissus," the name of the man
who killed Commodus in real life.
















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