Gladiator (2000 film)
2000 film by Ridley Scott
Gladiator is a 2000 epic action adventure drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson from a story by Franzoni. It stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays Maximus Decimus Meridius, a Roman general who is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to a slave, Maximus becomes a gladiator and rises through the ranks of the arena, determined to avenge the murders of his family and the emperor.
The screenplay, initially written by Franzoni, was inspired by the 1958 Daniel P. Mannix novel Those About to Die. The script was acquired by DreamWorks Pictures, and Scott signed on to direct the film. Principal photography began in January 1999 and wrapped in May of that year. Production was complicated by the script being rewritten multiple times and by the death of Oliver Reed before production was finished.
Gladiator had its world premiere in Los Angeles, California, on May 1, 2000. The film was released in the United States on May 5, 2000 by DreamWorks Distribution LLC, and internationally on May 12, 2000, by Universal Pictures through United International Pictures.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q128518. VIAF identifies the subject as 316751918. The Library of Congress control number is no2001011573. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 1958 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gladiator (2000 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.