Talk:Wallace Breem

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I was wondering what proof there is that the film Gladiator drew on Breem´s novel? The two plots are very different, not least because the two emperors are ca 200 years apart, Commodus and Honorius.

If you read the battle scenes in the novel, you'll see that one of them almost exactly matches the opening battle of the film. Several of the characters have the same names, too, notably Maximus and Quintus (who have the same relationship in both the novel and the film). Much of the reflective and honorable character of Maximus in the film seems to be based on the character of Maximus in the book, too (his thoughts of home, etc.). For proof, why not try contacting the screenplay-writer(s) of the film? mfc

The battle scenes are similar only in that they are wintertime battles between Roman forces and barbarians. David Franzoni received the sole attribution of story credit for the film, and there is no indication that Maximus or Quintus were in any way based on the characters from Wallace Breem's novel (both Maximus and Quintus being non-unique cognomens used at the time).

(Please sign your comments.) It's amusing that you imply that only people who are credited in the film deserve recognition. If films credited everyone whose ideas were used, the credits of any film would be last for days. Please read Breem's novel -- the relationship between Maximus and Quintus is an exact match (and there is little or no other purpose for the character of Quintus in the film). mfc 21:33, 15 June 2006 (UTC)