300

[MacGuffin]

300 Invades the Web
Official film site now online.

Warner Bros. has launched the official film site for the big-screen adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel 300. Many of the site's major attractions, such as video journals and downloads, are still listed as "coming soon" but there is conceptual art and director Zack Snyder's production blog available.

In the site's inaugural production blog, dated December 15, Snyder says, "This week concludes our 9th week of principle photography on the film and so far, it has been an incredible journey. Four more weeks of shooting to go and I'm sure they will prove to be just as challenging, but more importantly, just as rewarding."

The concept art section of the site shows comparisons between frames from Miller's comic, the film's storyboards and the final shots from the movie.

300 is being filmed on sound stages in Canada with digital effects being used to recreate ancient Greece.



Cast: Gerard Butler, Andrew Pleavin, Dominic West, Lena Headey

Writers: Michael Gordon, Kurt Johnstad, Frank Miller, Zack Snyder

Director: Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead (2004))

Premise: Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, "300" concerns the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians; the battle is said to have inspired all of Greece to band together against the Persians, and helped usher in the world's first democracy.



Zack Snyder on 300
Director talks comic book movie.

In an interview with UGO, director Zack Snyder talked about his planned film adaptation of Frank Miller's historical graphical novel miniseries 300. Snyder is rewriting Michael Gordon's screenplay adaptation and will also direct the epic about the Battle of Thermopylae.

"I'm really excited about 300. I was just on the phone with Frank [Miller] yesterday talking about the script that my partner, Kurt Johnstad, and I wrote. We got his take on it because we are doing a rewrite," said Snyder. "The script is based almost exactly on the comic book, and all we did was add a second story with King Leonidas' wife trying to rally the troops to support her husband. We wanted a little more girl-power in the movie. We are about to shoot a test for Warner Bros. because they want to see how the comic book comes to life and what it looks like."

Snyder revealed that the filmmakers have already "done some conceptual art for the movie so far. We did a maquette of Ephialtes and he looks exactly as he does in the comic book. We've also been working on the immortals."

And regardless of whether another Frank Miller film adaptation, Sin City, proves to be a box office flop, "300 would still happen because they are really looking at the performance of a movie like Alexander."

[hedwig]

We wanted a little more girl-power in the movie.

sounds like a job for

GURL POWAH!

[edison]

300 would still happen because they are really looking at the performance of a movie like Alexander.

and didnt that flop?

[MacGuffin]

Comic-Con 2006: 300 Conquers Crowd
Fans go wild for Frank Miller adaptation.

Warner Bros. presented new footage from its upcoming big-screen adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Saturday. The extended footage, cut in the style of a trailer but roughly five minutes or so in length, went over so well with the crowd of thousands that it was played three times to resounding applause.

The footage was accompanied by appearances by director Zack Snyder, comic book legend Frank Miller, and two of the film's stars, Gerard Butler and David Wenham. The panelists answered questions from the crowd, mainly of the "how was it like working on this film" variety.

The 300 segment included striking images of the Spartans in battle against the invading Persians, with many a limb, eye and even a spinning severed head lost in the bloodshed. The highly stylized cinematography and direction was, like Sin City before it, an almost direct translation of Miller's and Lynn Varney's imagery to the silver screen.

The footage tracked Leonidas (Butler), king of the ill-fated Spartans, from birth, through his lifelong training as a warrior to the threat posed to the Greek states by the invading Persians. The 300 Spartans of Miller's imagination are recreated here in exquisite detail, down to the way in which their capes flow and their battlefield moves.

Along with the crowd reactions to Spider-Man 3 and Grind House, 300 proved to be one of the big winners at this year's Comic-Con.

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: March 9th, 2007 (wide)

Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Regan, Dominic West

Directed by: Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead)

Premise: Set in the midst of the Persian-Greco war during the Battle of Thermopylae, where Spartan king Leonidas led his army of 300 soldiers into battle against the invading Persian army. According to legend, their valor and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite against their Persian foe, leading to the origins of democracy.

[matt35mm]

One, that's a long trailer.

Two, that's a lot of slow mo.

Three, God I hope it's interesting.  Battle movies can be boring as hell.  There was a hint of balls, but it could go either way.  And from what I could see, Gerard Butler was perfectly cast.

[The Perineum Falcon]

For whatever reason, someone at ifilm has decided to stop sharing the trailer (because it's too big).

Here's another link.

[modage]

after the comic-con hype, i'm a little letdown.  i like the NIN, but the trailer could definitely use a shave.  i also wonder if the highly stylized thing will work for gladiators, when people start shouting in those clothes it reminds me of Troy or something.  i'm not familiar with this graphic novel, but i hope its good. 

[pete]

it looks quite nerdy.  I don't know if a guy jumping and thrusting his sword forward can be exciting anymore, in the age of better CGI as well as better stunt guys, that move just seems really silly (especially if ageny cody banks was doing it).  but I'll watch it.  there is this other film coming out called pathfinder, and some shots also look similar.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[Pubrick]

lots of yelling and still lots of slow mo. it looks cool enuff to sustain a trailer and get ppl excited but in a feature length.. maybe i'll bring ear plugs.

the gold tone doesn't do much for me except in high contrast shots like the first and last..



the blue stuff is the best



i'm definitely looking forward to seeing the trailer on a big screen.

[Pwaybloe]

I always thought "The Way Out Is Through" would be great for a tension-release type of scene.  I guess I never thought of it to use in a trailer. 

Pete's right in that it looks very nerdy.  Stylistically interesting, but still very nerdy. 

[1976]

it looks gorgeous.

I can't wait to see the final product.

[MacGuffin]

Frank Miller Says Bloody '300' Story Shaped His Whole Career
Author/filmmaker's graphic novel about epic Spartan battle coming to theaters March 2007.
Source: MTV

LOS ANGELES — It was courageous, sure — bold and gutsy and valorous beyond measure or expectation, a fight that could only delay defeat and not reverse it.

It was one of the most important battles of ancient history and the most famous last stand of all time. It was the story of a group of 300 men who fought a force that outnumbered them by thousands, of soldiers who lived and died by the warrior code, of simple men whose bravery inspired a nation. It is the story of Sparta.

And according to author and filmmaker Frank Miller, whose graphic novel "300" recounts the story of King Leonidas, his small contingent of 300 Spartan warriors and their bloody fight against hundreds of thousands of Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, that makes it a story of true heroism.

"Heroes aren't necessarily the people who get the medal at the end of the story, like Luke Skywalker does. Or get the woman, or get cheered at the end of every story or come back to school like Harry Potter," Miller declared. "Heroes are the people who do things that are right."

For the Spartans, doing what was right meant holding off the mammoth Persian invasion for as long as they could while Athenian fleets amassed offshore. They made it three spectacular days before finally getting slaughtered, and March 2007's "300" will depict all the drama, action and heroism as vividly as possible on film.

"There are a lot of good [scenes like] the first shot of the Spartan phalanx charging," Miller enthused. "But one that is really startling and original is when the Spartans push a pile of corpses the size of a three-story building over on the enemy. It's pretty startling."

Miller, whose "Sin City" and "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" comic books redefined noir grittiness, is pretty hard-core himself. Adapted for the big screen by Zack Snyder ("Dawn of the Dead") and starring Gerard Butler as King Leonidas, "300" is unabashed in its giddiness to portray the true horrors of combat.

But beyond generating remarkable images of ancient violence, Miller is proud to bring "300" to the big screen because he said it is the culmination of a lifetime of interest in the story — which he admitted influenced his career from an early age.

"I was 7 years old when I first came across the story, and it set the course for my entire creative life," he said. "I was a little boy sitting in the theater, and I turned to my big brother and said, 'Are the good guys losing?' That affected me at 7 — I imagine any kid [who sees '300'] is going to be affected as well."

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.