Last we heard, Zack Snyder was playing it safe regarding a potential sequel to his massive 2006 hit “300.” He was waiting for Frank Miller to complete his 6-part “300” prequel comic “Xerxes,” and only if it met his rigorous standards would he then think about making it into a film. “If it’s awesome and compelling,” said Snyder “then, yes, we’re interested.” Well, apparently, it’s awesome enough.
The LA Times reports that Snyder has confirmed that he has completed a writing deal for the film, and has started work with collaborator Kurt Johnstad. “We closed the writing deal on ‘Xerxes.’ We started writing about a week ago,” Snyder said. “So we’re doing it. It’s happening.”
But whether or not he will get behind the camera, sounds like a matter that is still being negotiated with Warner Bros. who have a first look deal with Snyder. “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,” Snyder said. We imagine that if the budget and script look like where Warner Bros. want it to be, then getting Snyder locked in won’t be too much of a problem.
As Miller confirmed back in June, “Xerxes” will start at the battle of Marathon a decade before Thermopylae, and “will be the same heft as ‘300’ but it covers a much, much greater span of time — it’s 10 years, not three days. This is a more complex story … so much larger.” It features gods and warriors galore (Xerxes is pursuing godhood), and Miller hinted at a potentially massive set piece involving either or both of the Athenian and Persian naval fleets.
Snyder elaborates on the story saying, “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’],” Snyder said. “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.”
“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.”
As you might recall Leonidas was Gerard Butler’s character from the original film, but there is no word yet on if he’ll reappear in what would be a cameo appearance. As for Snyder, he expects the sequel to take on the same visual scope as “300.”
We figured it was only a matter of time before “Xerxes” was put into development, but we can’t say we’re too excited. The most of us here at the Playlist, “300” was a snoozefest of greased up dudes yelling at each other for an entire movie with too many sequences falling back into slo-mo. Then again, the wider focus of “Xerxes” may allow Snyder a bit more room to breathe, but his dogged faithfulness to the source material of “Watchmen” pretty much sucked the life out of that film so we’ll be interested to see how this one plays out.