Finding the director

Much like Steven Spielberg, it didn’t take Sir Ridley Scott too much convincing to agree to sign on the picture.

After producers showed the filmmaker a copy of Jean-Léon Gérôme's’ 1872 painting ‘Pollice Verso’ - which depicted a gladiator patiently waiting the judgment of his fight by a coliseum crowd - Ridley was sold.

He later said: “That image spoke to me of the Roman Empire in all its glory and wickedness. I knew right then and there I was hooked.”