The 300 Sequel/Prequel/Sequel with Flashbacks?

[Dianne]

300 to return
Monday, 6 October 2008

Zack Snyder has confirmed there will be a '300' sequel.

The 'Watchmen' director - who helmed the movie adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel in 2006 - has confirmed the author is penning and drawing a new story on which the film follow-up will be based.

According to IESB.net, Snyder revealed he had been in touch with Miller, who is now working on the follow-up, but admitted he would have to wait until the book is finished before he starts working alongside Miller on a script for the next instalment.

Snyder also said the new movie will focus on the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Plataea, where narrator Dilios is while telling the story of King Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler, to a group of warriors at the end of the first film.

It is unknown whether Gerard and co-stars Lena Headey, Dominic West and Michael Fassbender will return for the sequel.

[steph]

sweet!

[Dianne]

That should be interesting because I have no idea how they do it....Maybe King Leo keeps coming back as a memory ghost and keeps leaving letters for her to find? That would make a great movie!

[sassenach]

I can't possibly see how on earth, could Leonidas come back from the deads - battle of Plataie happened AFTER Thermopylae, so by then he was only an heroic memory.....
Leaving letters....hmmmm....sounds interesting.....and deja vy.....!
As much as i adore Gerard, i have to admit that rarely does a sequel prove itself equal or superior to the first movie....
Better leave "300" and Leonidas in peace....

[torisweettooth]

Oct 23, 2008 4:25:25 GMT -5 Dianne said:

That should be interesting because I have no idea how they do it....Maybe King Leo keeps coming back as a memory ghost and keeps leaving letters for her to find? That would make a great movie!

Dejay Vu is right! If they did that I would have to purposely give the score a C-. Repeating a storyline like PSILY to 300 II is pathetic. Well not as stern but really? Come on...

Plus I don't think GB playing in this again would be good. I mean you don't want to tight cast him. Plus he died and I doubt GB would want to do the 300 Spartan Workout again.

HOO RAAAA! ;D

[canadia]

Decided to start a new thread on the proposed sequel to 300 being done by Zack Synder.

It was discussed before and Gerry was not sounding enthusiastic. It sounds like they are trying to entice him to either reprise KL somehow or play some part in this movie.

Thanks to Tinkerbell for a link to a comprehensive article from the LA Times on this movie

[canadia]

Hero Complex
For your inner fanboy
Category: Zack Snyder

Frank Miller returns to the '300' battlefield with 'Xerxes': 'I make no apologies whatsoever'
June 1, 2010 | 6:02 am

EXCLUSIVE

This is a longer version of my Calendar cover story on Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times.

Frank Miller and the filmmakers behind "300" are looking for a return to the battlefields of antiquity -- and, no doubt, to the arenas of pop-culture controversy.

latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ef66faa4970b-400wi


Three years ago, the sword-and-sandal adventure "300" became a surprise sensation with moviegoers -- it set box-office records for a March release and became the highest-grossing R-rated film of 2007 -- and delivered career breakthroughs for actor Gerard Butler and director Zack Snyder. But the movie, which was based on the comic books written and drawn by Miller, also triggered an unlikely international incident with its portrayal of the Persian leader Xerxes the bloody Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bitterly denounced the film and the Iranian Academy of the Arts filed a formal complaint through the United Nations that framed the movie as nothing less than an attack on the historical identity of a nation -- especially with its portrayal of Xerxes (portrayed by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro) as leering and androgynous and the Persian army as a demonic horde.

Those foes and critics of "300" will not be enthused to hear that Tuesday, Miller released the first artwork from his upcoming book -- a "300" prequel entitled "Xerxes." More than that, Snyder and "300" producer Thomas Tull have seen some of Miller's completed pages and plan to pursue it as a feature film if the finished tale lives up to their hopes.

"If the book is awesome and compelling," Snyder said Monday, "then, yes, we're interested."

Miller said his "Xerxes" will be a six-part tale with each installment released in individual comic book issues beginning next year. The publisher will be Dark Horse Comics, which published Miller's "300" as a five-issue mini-series in 1998 and which has notable Hollywood success with other properties such as "Hellboy" and "The Mask."

"The story will be the same heft as '300' but it cover a much, much greater span of time -- it's 10 years, not three days," Miller said. "This is a more complex story. The story is so much larger. The Spartans in '300' were being enclosed by the page as the world got smaller. This story has truly vast subjects. The Athenian naval fleet, for instance, is a massive artistic undertaking and it dwarfed by the Persian fleet, which is also shown in this story. The story has elements of espionage, too, and it's a sweeping tale with gods and warriors."

he action may take place in the distant past, but as "300" the film showed, any tale that pits the West against a Middle East culture is closely inspected these days for contemporary political messaging. That was especially the case for "300," which an Iranian government spokesman described a cultural slur of the highest order.

"Not only would no nation or government accept this ... but it would also consider it as hostile behavior, which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare," Tehran official Gholamhossein Elham said in March 2007. While Tehran officials framed the film as a primer to stir the American populace for war, many cultural critics here in the States saw "300" as the cinematic equivalent of the World Wrestling Federation. In The New Yorker, for instance, David Denby wrote: "Everyone screams at everyone, and specialized Persian warriors wearing masks and other freakish regalia turn up to do battle. Pop has always drawn energy from the lower floors of respectability; this movie, in which fan-boy cultism reaches new levels of goofy chaos and sexual confusion, draws energy from the subbasement."

The Persians were presented as ruthless but consistently out-wittted, and their leader Xerxes was made to looked like a heavily pierced, decadent Dennis Rodman lookalike, while the Spartans were portrayed primarily as honorable, duty-bound and robust of spirit and body.

latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ef81168b970b-600wi

s for the title of the new tale, Miller is aware that his choice will be seen as willfully provocative -- the portrayal of Xerxes in "300" was deeply offensive in Iran, where the ruler is viewed as part of a noble era in Persian history.

"Yes, I suppose it will be seen as provocative, but really to me he is such a pivotal character and in this story I get to explain him so much more fully," Miller said. "I do my best to crawl inside his head rather than have him be this iconic force that simply commands this huge army. There are many scenes with him alone or just with his people. There's an extended scene set in Persepolis, for instance, where he takes power and there are several scenes where he is going through his transitions and he's shown speaking to his mother and his wife and with all of that he becomes that much more interesting as a character."

[canadia]

This Variety Article sets out more clearly to me what Zach Snyder is hoping to accomplish with this new movie now I understand what you were saying Tinkerbell - it is not a prequel in that it deal with another famous battle that takes place around the same time as the battle in 300 but then goes back to set up the why of the conflict. I am more convinced G won't be interested regardless and Zack like any good salesman is mentioning GB to get more buzz for his project or everyone keeps asking him if GB will be in it.

Zack Snyder Fully Intends to Direct Xerxes, Reveals Plot Details

July 21, 2010
Source: Hero Complex
by Ethan Anderton



For the past six months we've had intermittent updates on Frank Miller's prequel to his epic graphic novel 300. Titled Xerxes, the story focuses on The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece which was fought between the citizens of Athens and a Persian force commanded by both Datis & Artaphernes. We also heard that Zack Snyder was optimistically waiting for Miller to finish the novel and already presuming to direct the project. Now Hero Complex is reporting that Snyder has definitely declared intent to direct the film which is currently being written, however the studio hasn't made an official deal yet.

Snyder says: "We closed the writing deal on Xerxes. We started writing about a week ago. It's really going to depend on what the studio wants to do and what we do when we finish; I don't have a directing deal in place but we are writing it, so call it intent. If there was a crime they could probably convict me." We got a first look at the art for Xerxes earlier this year, and it's a lot more of the same (which is not bad). Surely Snyder bringing his stylized visuals and slow motion action back to this will be highly anticipated after the success of 300, the breakthrough film in his career which made the Watchmen movie possible (for better or worse).

Interestingly enough, though Xerxes is typically referred to as a prequel to 300 (even by us), apparently it's not exactly fitting of that classification. Snyder explains:

"This movie follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium, which coincidentally happens on the exact same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae [which was the basis of 300]. This one starts off with a quick retelling of the why of the Persian wars. It starts off at the Battle of Marathon and then it goes back to Themistocles finding out that Persians are invading again. and off we go over to learn a little bit about why Xerxes is the way he is."

Though fans will surely be looking forward to Snyder's return to the epic battlefield, don't expect a simple re-hashing of all the action and intensity that made 300 a flick for the man's man. Snyder continues and elaborates on the differences between 300 and Xerxes:

"What I said to the studio is that 300 gave everyone a chance to fight alongside a super warrior, a chance to fight alongside these Spartan warriors that you could never fight against; but Themistocles is different, he is us. It's much more about the everyman. Themistocles is kind of the father of democracy. It's much more about these guys choosing. The Spartans are, 'We fight, we die,' so that's an easy choice for them, there's no surrender. The cool thing about Themistocles and his gang is that it's way more difficult. Things aren't as clear or unchallenged. He has to be more political to get everyone to agree. It's political, in the soap-opera sense of the word. There's a relationship with Leonidas and well, we'll see where it all goes."

So it sounds like there's a chance Gerard Butler could even return for a cameo, but Snyder says he hasn't contacted him about the flick yet. Either way, Xerxes sounds like it will have much of what everyone loved about 300, with a bit of a twist that makes the characters a little less hyperbolic in their heroic battles. We'll be looking forward to more details and an official announcement of a directing deal from Snyder (if he does decide to direct) and production commencement sometime down the road, so stay tuned. For now, I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about the graphic novel and its debut before we hear any more about the movie.

Read more: www.firstshowing.net/2010/07/21/zack-snyder-fully-intends-to-direct-xerxes-talks-about-story/#ixzz0uM9yxug2

[canadia]

More on this Xerxes movie project

Excerpt

Miller also said two other characters from 300 will make appearances in Xerxes: Ephialtes, the Spartan traitor, plays a part in the tale and there is “a brief appearance by Leonidis,” the Spartan king portrayed by Gerard Butler. I wonder if Butler would be interest in returning if his character is only in it briefly? There is also a possibility that Rodrigo Santoro could return as Xerxes.

filmonic.com/xerxes-script-in-the-works

Another article out today

Excerpts

Actually it’s not exactly a sequel, nor is it really a sequel. It’s more of a side-jump, a movie happening in parallel to the events of 300.

Do 300 fans care about why the Persians invaded? Wasn’t sort of the fun of 300 the fact that there wasn’t a lot of thinking and it just sort of leaped into the story of naked men stabbing each other? Maybe Snyder and Miller have been listening too much to all those Persian protest groups who had a cow because their ancient ancestors were the movie’s bad guys.

Since this is a movie happening in parallel though, that should put an end to any speculation that Gerard Butler
will be back. For that matter, aside from Xerxes, it sounds like they’ll need a whole new cast. This won’t be 300, just another story told in a similar style.
www.cinemablend.com/new/Zack-Snyder-Will-Start-Writing-Xerxes-His-300-Sequel-Which-Isn-t-A-Sequel-19712.html

[canadia]

Interesting, MTV caught up with Zack Snyder at Comic.con promoting his new movie Sucker Punch and he sounded a bit more tenative on this parallel-quel to 300 did I just make up a word?

Excerpt:

While it's certain that "Xerxes" will feature buff dudes, will the stylized visuals return? How about Butler?

"Yeah I think so," Snyder reported on the style. "I can't imagine that you would need to reinvent it. It's based on Frank's drawings, which are very much like '300.' I'd say that you'd kind of stay in that world." And as for Butler? "I gotta talk to him! It would be awesome. He's great."

Snyder isn't officially confirmed to direct, but he did tell us that "all things being equal — script comes together, everyone's schedules, blah, blah, blah," he'll be there.

www.mtv.com/news/articles/1644372/20100724/story.jhtml

[shellie]

Thanks for all of the up-dates on this project. As much as I would love to see Gerry return as Leonidas, I'm not a fan of actors doing a cameo of their role in a previous hit films unless they have some relevance. I just can't see and wouldn't want to see Gerry do just a walk through type role, that is for a retired actor LOL. I also think fans of 300 would want more than that also. Let's hope Zack can offer Gerry something worthwhile and more than a voice role on a DVD special edition like he did in Watchman.

[Lola]

Just have to say that it has to be a prequel, and if Gerry doesn't do it it'll be complete crap! But I don't think Gerry's into repeating himself, so if this comes out and he's not in it.. I probably won't watch it...just saying.

[lolab2711]

Same here, Kristie!! Gerry is the heart of 300 for me, and it's nothing without him. I was in the produce section of the grocery store the other day, choosing limes, and when I saw they were from Persia, I just had to smile, thinking of how Gerry pronounces it "Pairsia" - love him!!

[Dianne]

Aug 8, 2010 20:00:19 GMT -5 lolab2711 said:

Same here, Kristie!! Gerry is the heart of 300 for me, and it's nothing without him. I was in the produce section of the grocery store the other day, choosing limes, and when I saw they were from Persia, I just had to smile, thinking of how Gerry pronounces it "Pairsia" - love him!!

Pairsha... Love it!!!!

[gerrysspngal]

Aug 8, 2010 20:00:19 GMT -5 lolab2711 said:

Same here, Kristie!! Gerry is the heart of 300 for me, and it's nothing without him. I was in the produce section of the grocery store the other day, choosing limes, and when I saw they were from Persia, I just had to smile, thinking of how Gerry pronounces it "Pairsia" - love him!!

I only watched & bought 300 purely because of Gerry!

Although Aussie David Wenham was in it too, which was a bonus cause I like him as an actor, as does my Mum BUT I wouldn't see a sequel based on David's appearance, it would have to be Gerry's & a fairly substantial part too...not just a cameo.