Ridley Scott’s $218 Million Historical Epic Comes to Prime Video in November

Iconic Hollywood filmmaker Ridley Scott is set to bring Gladiator II to the big screen this November. However, fans can revisit one of Scott’s lesser-heralded historical epics on streaming before his anticipated sequel hits cinemas, as his Kingdom of Heaven movie finds a new online home.

Prime Video confirmed it will begin streaming Kingdom of Heaven on Nov. 1, becoming the latest service to carry the film after Disney+. The film’s Prime Video debut comes two weeks before Gladiator II premieres in theaters internationally, offering movie lovers a chance to catch up with another of Scott’s films in the meantime.

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Released by 20th Century Fox in 2005, five years after Gladiator‘s debut, Kingdom of Heaven stars Orlando Bloom, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, Eva Green, Edward Norton and Jeremy Irons. Set in medieval France, Kingdom of Heaven tells a largely fictionalized account of the events leading to the Third Crusade, focusing largely on Bloom’s Balian of Ibelin, who defends the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem from the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin (Ghassan Massoud).

“I do try and do something different each time, but there’s a thousand years difference so you’d think there’d be enough difference in it,” Scott told the BBC in 2005 regarding making Kingdom of Heaven stand out from Gladiator.

In terms of what was the most difficult to pull off in the film, Scott explained, “I think the biggest thing was the obvious one, the Battle of Jerusalem. One of the hardest things to do even on paper is a battle that only lasts two weeks. Normally this would last two months or even two years. They would basically try to starve the city or wait until it ran out of water. Or worse, they would get a diseased body and catapult in diseased remains and hope that disease broke out. One of the hard things was how to chapter this up and get a sense of time, to capture that without losing all these characters in the process. I think when you step back, it’s a bit like doing a painting. I like to step back and refer to the canvas. So at the end of it looking back I think it works pretty well. The way events developed over the next three or four years it started to get more and more relevant. Particularly with the bad use of the word ‘crusades.’ People forget that the crusaders were the bad guys.”

Kingdom of Heaven failed to yield heavenly results critically and commercially. The movie holds a 39% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many lauding Scott’s ambitious effort to retell the Crusades, but calling out its lack of story depth and historical inaccuracies — similar criticisms Scott later received for Napoleon. Salon.com wrote, “Since we barely know what’s at stake — we’re too confused and bored to care — all this fighting means nothing to us, and yet Scott still hopes to rev us up with it,” while Detroit News noted, “Dramatically, the problem is it’s a lot easier to root for someone battling tigers and gladiators than it is to cheer on a guy wondering about the meaning of life. This is why Waiting for Godot has never been made into a summer movie blockbuster.”

Scott later released a director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven, which many consider the better and more definitive version of the movie. Sheraz Farooqi of CinemaDebate gave the Kingdom of Heaven director’s cut a 5/5:

“Director’s cut holds as one of Scott’s best. Balanced approach to this tense historical event, portraying Muslims as three-dimensional and not Hollywood’s classic route of stereotypes. Overall, well-acted, well-directed, with scale and drama throughout.”

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Scott is busy promoting Gladiator II, the follow-up to the eponymous Best Picture Oscar-winning effort that’s considered one of the best in the sword-and-sandal genre. The sequel stars Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and former heir to the throne, who lives a normal family life in Numidia until he is captured by the Roman Army and forced into slavery, later becoming a gladiator like his inspiration, Maximus Decimus Meridius. The star-studded sequel also features Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger and Derek Jacobi.

“I think the very first day, and just coming out and there being a couple of hundred to a thousand SAs [supporting artists/extras], with fires burning, and the walls of Morocco, I was like, ‘Ooh – this is f**king big,'” Mescal explained recently while discussion Scott’s intensity while shooting Gladiator II. “But… the first thing [Ridley] said before filming was, ‘Your nerves are no f**king good to me.’ Which is Ridley in a nutshell, but it’s the perfect thing to say, because it’s so liberating. He’s totally right.

“I think I was consciously trying to get out of my head, like, the projections that people might have of what this film means,” he continued. “I didn’t watch it after I was cast, and then watched it on New Year’s Day with my friends, which was amazing… And there’s nothing really to be gained [by studying it in preparation] as it’s a different character.”

Gladiator II Has Gotten High Praise

Amid rave early reviews for Gladiator II, Scott called the upcoming film “the best thing I’ve ever made,” believing it could be as good and successful as its predecessor given its quality. He also has teased plans for a potential Gladiator threequel, recently revealing he’s jotted down some ideas for another installment.

Meanwhile, Scott’s film and TV production company, Scott Free, will craft three new series; Modville, Hyde and Nick, with a sneak peek of the project available on MechanicalCake.com.

Source: Prime Video

Kingdom of Heaven features Orlando Bloom as Balian, a blacksmith who becomes a knight and travels to Jerusalem during the Crusades. Amidst religious wars, he strives to maintain peace and protect the city’s people, regardless of their faith, while dealing with internal betrayal and immense external pressures.

Director

Ridley Scott

Release Date

May 6, 2005

Cast

Orlando Bloom , Eva Green , Martin Hancock , Michael Sheen , Nathalie Cox , Eriq Ebouaney , Jouko Ahola , David Thewlis

Writers

William Monahan

Runtime

144 Minutes

Main Genre

Action

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