Hollywood's resurrection of Rome marches on: "Gladiator," the glitzy successor to "Ben-Hur" and "Spartacus," led the Oscar field Tuesday with 12 nominations, including best picture, actor and director.
Another tale of ancient warriors, the Mandarin-language "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," was next with 10 -- picture, director and foreign-language film among them.
Also receiving best picture nominations were the candy-shop romance "Chocolat," the legal drama "Erin Brockovich" and the drug-trade saga "Traffic."
Steven Soderbergh grabbed two of the five best-director slots, for "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic" -- which could hurt his chances of winning if the two films siphon votes from each other. The last time a director was nominated twice in the same year was Michael Curtiz in 1938, for "Angels with Dirty Faces" and "Four Daughters." (He lost.)
The other director nominees Tuesday were Stephen Daldry for "Billy Elliot," Ang Lee for "Crouching Tiger" and Ridley Scott for "Gladiator."
"Gladiator," the first Roman spectacle since the 1960s, also grabbed nominations for actor Russell Crowe, supporting actor Joaquin Phoenix and Hans Zimmer's score. The computer wizardry used to recreate ancient Rome was named for visual effects.
"Those effects were crucial," said David Franzoni, a producer on "Gladiator" who also shared an original screenplay nomination for the film. "I'd never seen Rome rebuilt where it looked real. It always looked like a set. I was never convinced from those old movies that I was looking at ancient Rome. But we were able to show what Rome looked like. That Goodyear blimp shot of the Colosseum -- you couldn't have done that any other way."
In their heyday, gladiator flicks fared well at the Oscars. "Ben-Hur" won best picture and 10 other Academy Awards in 1959. (Its total of 11 is tied with "Titanic" for the most ever.) A year later, Peter Ustinov took the supporting-actor statue for "Spartacus," which also won Oscars for costumes, sets and cinematography. "Cleopatra" had a best-picture nomination for 1963 and won four technical Oscars.
On top of its stunning visuals, "Gladiator" caught on because the frenzy of deadly spectator sports resonated with audiences, said Douglas Wick, another of its producers.
"There's much of Rome that feels very contemporary," Wick said. "A population distracted by entertainment from more serious issues. The idea of celebrity athletes. ... It always felt relevant."
It was the second year in a row that DreamWorks, the studio co-founded by Steven Spielberg, had the film with the most nominations. "Gladiator" was
co-produced by Universal and DreamWorks, with the latter releasing the film domestically. A year ago, DreamWorks won best-picture honors with "American Beauty."
"Crouching Tiger" is only the third film to earn both best-picture and foreign-language film nominations. The others were "Life Is Beautiful" in 1998 and "Z" in 1969.<
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