"Well it had to happen. I just had to find a history movie I hated even more than The Patriot! But you know what's funny, you'd think that casting probably THE most French actor you could possibly think of to play the most famous Italian explorer in history would piss me off. But no.....it doesn't" - HistoryBuffs 1492: Conquest of Paradise is an epic 1992 adventure/drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Roselyne Bosch, which tells the fictionalized story of the discovery of the New World by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (Gérard Depardieu) and the effect this had on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.