Gladiator star Russell Crowe returns to Malta for new film

Hollywood giant Russell Crowe, who filmed Gladiator in Malta in 1999, has returned to the island for work on a new movie in between other films

Gladiator star Russell Crowe
Gladiator star Russell Crowe

Gladiator star Russell Crowe is back in Malta: this time, spotted with a production crew that is filming in various locations across the island for the next days.

Crowe was the star of Ridley Scott’s Roman-era epic, Gladiator, filmed partly in Malta in 1999 with a lavish set at Fort Rinella where the island was used as a set for ancient Rome.

Industry sources are tagging Crowe to the filming of Prizefighter, a forthcoming movie about the 19th-century pugilist Jem Belcher, starring Matt Hookings, Ray Winstone, Jodhi May and Steven Berkoff. Crowe’s name is not listed however in IMDB cast listings for the film.

Crowe was recently filming in Thailand just two weeks ago, with Hollywood star Zac Efron. The pair are appearing in a movie based on the book ‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’, about the story of Marine Corps veteran John ‘Chick’ Donohue – played by Efron – who in 1967 travelled thousands of miles to give his friend a beer and messages from home in the middle of the Vietnam War.

Ridley Scott’s epic Gladiator starred Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius, an Ancient Roman general-turned-slave-turned-gladiator who must overthrow a mad emperor (Joaquin Phoenix) to restore a republic. 

The movie lives on in Maltese folklore after English actor Oliver Reed, who plays the role of a slavemaster, died suddenly in Malta after suffering a suspected heart attack in a Valletta bar.  Reed had been in the bar with his wife, some Maltese friends and crew members of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland, where he was drinking.