sees the mad side of Commodus when he is forced to execute two innocent men. Quintus later redeems himself by refusing to allow Commodus a second sword during the latter's duel with Maximus and promises to honor Maximus's last wishes. Spencer Treat Clark as Lucius Verus: The young son of Lucilla. He is named after his father Lucius Verus, who was co-emperor until 169 AD. He is also the grandson of Marcus Aurelius. He idolizes Maximus for his victories in the arena. David Hemmings as Cassius: The master of ceremonies for the gladiatorial games in the Colosseum. Sven-Ole Thorsen as Tigris of Gaul. The only undefeated Gladiator was brought out of retirement by Commodus to kill Maximus. Omid Djalili as a slave trader. Giannina Facio as Maximus's wife. Giorgio Cantarini as Maximus's son, who is the same age as Lucilla's son Lucius. John Quinn as Valerius, a Roman general in the army of Maximus Decimus Meridius. Production Development David Franzoni, who wrote the first draft, had dropped out of graduate school by 1972 and took his downtime to ride across Eastern Europe on a motorcade. During his trip, Franzoni was amazed that "everywhere I went in Europe, there were arenas. Even as I went east, going through Turkey, I began to think to myself this must have been a hell of a franchise." During a stop in Baghdad, Iraq, he stopped reading a book about the Irish Revolution for another one: Daniel P. Mannix's 1958 novel Those About to Die. These trips helped Franzoni inspire many ideas about a story set in the Roman Empire. Twenty-five years later, Franzoni wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's Amistad, which was the director's first film for DreamWorks Pictures, for which Speilberg was one of the three founders of the newly created independent studio. Though Amistad was a moderate commercial success, DreamWorks was impressed with Franzoni's screenplay and given him a three-picture deal as writer and co-producer. Remembering his 1972 trip, Franzoni pitched his Roman History idea to Spielberg, who immediately told him to write the script. In Franzoni's first draft, dated April 4, 1998, Franzoni chose to base his story on Commodus after reading the ancient Roman Historia Augusta. He later named his protagonist Narcissus, a wrestler who, according to the ancient sources Herodian and Cassius Dio, strangled Emperor Commodus to death. Ridley Scott was approached by producers Walter F. Parkes and Douglas