Fancy seeing a sequel penned by the Bad Seed in which Russell Crowe's character is reincarnated by Roman gods? Neither did the film studios, funnily enough

Fans have uncovered Nick Cave's script for the sequel to Ridley Scott's Gladiator, years after the idea was proposed and eventually dismissed.

Cave's supernatural, century-spanning screenplay, written at the request of star Russell Crowe, has to be one of the most bombastic, jaw-dropping might have beens in cinema.

Following the success of Gladiator, released in 2000, Crowe and Scott invited Cave to write a script for the sequel. They hoped that the macabre musician could find a creative solution to Gladiator 2's main hurdle – that Maximus, Crowe's character, dies at the end of the first film.

The Bad Seed certainly came up with an inventive solution. According to one blog's synopsis of the script, Crowe's Maximus meddles with Roman gods in the afterlife, is reincarnated, defends early Christians, reunites with his son, and ultimately lives forever – leading tanks in the second world war and even mucking around in the modern-day Pentagon.

Unfortunately, this was too daft for the studios. "We tried [to go with Cave's script]," Scott told UGO. "Russell didn't want to let it go, obviously, because it worked very well. When I say 'worked very well', I don't refer to success. I mean, as a piece it works very well. Storytelling, [it] works brilliantly. I think [Cave] enjoyed doing it, and I think it was one of those things that he thought, 'Well, maybe there's a sequel where we can adjust the fantasy and bring [Maximus] back from the dead.'"

After Cave's unsuccessful foray into Hollywood blockbusters, he has pursued smaller screenwriting gigs – including 2005's The Proposition – but mostly he has stuck to music. As Cave explained to Variety: "I'm very comfortable in my day job as a musician. The last thing I ever wanted to get involved with is Hollywood. The way it works is that people get an idea you could possibly do something, but there's a one-in-a-hundred chance that it could get made. It's a waste of fucking time, and I have a lot to do."