The past few weeks have had us buzzing with excitement aboutRidley Scott’s next adventure epic,Gladiator II. There’s been an abundance of promotional materials that have been nothing short of stunning, teasing the kind of grand scale of epic spectacle that we’ve come to expect from the iconic director. While Scott has explored his creativity with diverse genres, he seemingly has a preference for epics, and arguably they make up some of his most notable works. While we count down the days before the hotly anticipatedGladiatorsequel returns us to the Colosseum, another of Scott’s epic features has landed streaming to help us past the time.Kingdom of Heaven, Scott’s 2005 epic, fictionalizing the events leading to the Third Crusade, will arrive on Prime Video next month.
Following the release of theRussel Crowe-ledGladiatorin 2000, Scott didn’t make any similar movie until 2005’s historical epic feature,Kingdom of Heaven. The film starred an ensemble cast includingOrlando Bloom,Eva Green,Jeremy Irons,David Thewlis,Brendan Gleeson,Marton Csokas, andLiam Neeson. The narrative revolves around a recently widowed village blacksmith, Balian (Bloom) aka Balian of Ibelin, who is thrust into the Holy Wars during the Crusades. Balian becomes a critical figure in the fight to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin.
‘Kingdom of Heaven’s’ Has An Acclaimed Director’s Cut
Kingdom of Heavengrossed $218.1 million against a budget of $130 million. Critical reviews were mixed, with many expressing displeasure at the film’s historical inaccuracies and insufficient development of its characters. However, those negative reviews were reversed with the release of the director’s cut featuring an extra 50 minutes. It’s unclear whether both versions will be released on Prime Video, but either way, audiences will have a lot of visually stunning battle sequences to enjoy, not to mentionspectacular performances from a big ensemble.
In need of some more sword action movies from Scott? Last year’sNapoleon,which has drawn many parallels withKingdom of Heaven, is available to stream on AppleTV+. Scott has even more epic dramas coming our way, as the director recently teased that he’s begun laying out the framework for a potentialsecondGladiatorsequel,meaning that Lucius' adventure might not wrap up with the upcoming film. Speaking of the direction of Gladiator 3, he said:
“With that, I’m already playing with the idea of Gladiator 3. No, seriously! I lit the wick… The end of Gladiator II evokes that of the Godfather, with Michael Corleone who finds himself with a job he did not want, and who wonders, ‘And now, Father, what am I doing?’ The next [film] will therefore be about a man who does not want to be where he is.”
Kingdom of Heavenwill arrive on Prime Video on November 1, after which Gladiator II will hit theaters beginning November 22.
Kingdom of Heaven
Still in grief over his wife’s sudden death, village blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom) joins his long-estranged father, Baron Godfrey (Liam Neeson), as a crusader on the road to Jerusalem. After a perilous journey to the holy city, the valiant young man enters the retinue of the leprous King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), which is rife with dissent led by the treacherous Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas), who wishes to wage war against the Muslims for his own political and personal gain.
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