Gladiator Two And Five Other Terrible Movie Sequels That Almost Happened

Hollywood has always seemed to milk blockbuster films for too many sequels. So I am happy to tell you about six terrible ideas that they actually turned down instead of making a bad movie. Thanks to Cracked.com for putting the list together.

6)  "Ei8ht" a sequel to "Se7en".  This one would have starred Morgan Freeman as basically the same character from the first movie, but with psychic powers that he didn't have in the "Se7en".

"Se7en" director David Fincher was even sent the script.  But he said it didn't make sense and refused to be involved. Good for him.

5)  "E.T. 2:  Nocturnal Fears".  In this one, more aliens come to Earth and they look just like E.T., except they're albino and EVIL.  Turns out they HATE the brown-skinned aliens, and they've come to Earth looking for E.T., whose name is revealed to be Zrek.  The albinos capture the kids from the first movie and torture them for information about "Zrek"  who eventually returns to Earth to rescue them. Sounds WAY too dark for me.

Steven Spielberg and  Melissa Mathison  "E.T." screenwriter actually wrote an outline for the film.  But Spielberg eventually realized it would just tarnish the memory of the original.

4)  "Forrest Gump 2:  Gump and Co." It would have been based on the book of the same name, just like the first one was.  And again, it would have featured Tom Hanks accidentally taking part in various historical events. In "Gump and Co" Forest would dance with Princess Di, help bring down the Berlin Wall and end up in the backseat of O.J. Simpson's white Ford Bronco. The movie was going to end with Forrest at the Oklahoma City bombing.  But before the movie could get made, September 11th happened and Hanks and director Robert Zemekis decided the movie wasn't relevant anymore.

3.)  "Beetlejuice 2:  Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian".  Tim Burton didn't want to do a sequel (prob because he fell in love with Johnny Depp already), but the studio wanted it.  So he pitched them this idea, complete with Beetlejuice winning a surfing competition.  He figured they'd hate it.  They didn't. Burton ended up doing his "Batman" thing, and this one eventually lost steam.  I might have to take this one off the list. There's a rumor they might make a "Beetlejuice" Sequel after all.

2)  "Casablanca 2:  Brazzaville".  We find out in this one that Humphrey Bogart's character Rick was actually a Nazi-fighting American spy all along.  Bogart was actually signed up for this one.  The original Ilsa, Ingrid Bergman was not.  Warner Brothers eventually decided to scrap the project.

1)  "Gladiator 2".  Yes, Russell Crowe's character died at the end of the first one.  But there are ways around that.  Written by rock star Nick Cave, the script saw Crowe's Maximus being restored to life as an immortal by the Roman gods. then Maximus is present at every important war throughout history, like the Crusades and Vietnam.  At the end of the film, he's working at the Pentagon. So he'd be like Aries "The God Of War".   Crowe and Ridley Scott were seriously going to make this, but the studio thought it was ridiculous.  The two of them went on to do "Robin Hood" instead.