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

British filmmaker Sir Ridley Scott said there is “already an idea” for a third instalment to the Gladiator film franchise, inspired by the sequel to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Gladiator II is set years after Sir Ridley’s historical epic,

“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.”