The Malibu Film Society finished its equipment upgrade, with a brand new 21’-wide Cinemascope screen and new ultrawide coverage front-channel speakers. The community celebrated with a free screening of “Gladiator,” featuring a Q&A with the Oscar-winning producer (and screenwriter), David Franzoni.
Franzoni spoke about the importance of telling the story in a way that people would understand, as a modern epoch rather than an ancient tale.
“One of the things Steven [Speilberg] and I discussed as we went into this, is that we would have no Christians and no Jews in the movie, because we didn’t want to have people that we would plug our identities into. We had to go into this movie being Pagans. We had to cheer and yell … and all that. We had to be us instead of them, so that was really crucial.”
Franzoni remarked that one of the best parts about making the film, was that they actually got to shoot the script they were supposed to shoot.
“The movie to me was a miracle, and from when I was a kid living in Baghdad dreaming about maybe being a screenwriter one day … creating this magnificent movie about a gladiator fighting for his freedom. It is impossible to express the gratification that an artist feels when he sees that come to life.”