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.“

The director speaks his mind on rejected sequel ideas, Joaquin Phoenix’s plan to quit the original and working with a “fractious” Denzel Washington.

“I’ve lit the fuse,” Scott said. “The ending of ‘Gladiator II’ is reminiscent of ‘The Godfather,’ with Michael Corleone finding himself with a job he didn’t want, and wondering, ‘Now, Father, what do I do?‘ So the next [film] will be about a man who doesn’t want to be where he is.”