Zack Snyder Talks 300: Rise of an EmpirePosted by Wilson Morales
March 6, 2014
Coming out this week is ’300: Rise of an Empire,’ the sequel to Zack Snyder’s ’300.’
Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel “Xerxes” and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster “300,” this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. “300: Rise of an Empire” pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemesia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persia.
For Zack Synder, it’s a return to the film that gave him his big hit after directing ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ As the writer and director of ‘300,’ the film took in over $450M worldwide and led him bigger projects such as ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Man of Steel.’
At a recent press conference in Los Angeles where cast members Lena Headey, Eva Green, Jack O’Connell, Callan Mulvey, director Noam Murro, and producer Deborah Snyder also attended, Zack Snyder talked about working with Noam on this film, where he’s serving as the co-writer and producer.
Zack, what was it about Noam’s directorial background that drew you to him as your successor?
Zack Snyder: When Noam came to us to talk about the idea of making the movie.., because we had the script, and we knew that I was going to go do ‘Man of Steel’ and there was, no way, honestly, I was going to be able to do anything. It was a big decision to say “Oh, well maybe we should get another director to direct the movie”. So, we started to talk about directors, and Debbie (Snyder) had worked with Noam on a TV commercial back in Toronto, and we talked. She had been a big fan of Noam’s, and still is of course, and now in this new incarnation. That originally initiated the idea that we might work with him, and then he came and told us a little about what he wanted to do with the movie… Frankly, it was a lot of the things that I had said to these guys all those years ago when I was pitching the original movie. What I felt was symmetry in the full circle aspect of it. Then he did this cool presentation, and then we felt like he had the, sort of, vocabulary to make something cool, and he has. That’s how we sort of came to it.
How do you keep this story exciting without using the robotics and sophisticated weaponry? When you’re talking about a period like this, and it’s a big action movie, and we’re so used to seeing robotics and big action?
Zack Snyder: I mean, truthfully, there’re robots in the movie. I’m kidding. Kurt (Johnstad) and I, and he can speak for this too, when we were working out 300 originally, it was a thing that we just thought was cool. Clearly there is cool action, and stories to be told that don’t take place necessarily in a sci-fi environment, or an environment that need. We have a great tradition of historical films that make for good drama and action. We have an amazing fight choreographer, and stunt coordinator, Damon Caro. One of his favorite languages is swords and soldiers, and may be better than… well perhaps I won’t say that (laughs). I think when Kurt and I talk about it, these are things that we find cool. So, by the time Noam gets it I hope the spirit is infused with the energy anyway, that might help this to be interesting visually.
There are a lot of family relationships in the film; not only between father and son, but everyone else. They had their motivations on things that had happened to their families, and defending family. Can you talk about the element of defending and protecting your family, and having the honor with the defense type of thing that runs throughout the course of the film?
Zack Snyder: I think what Kurt and I were talking about when we originally started talking about how we would incorporate the different characters, and make them do what they were going to do in the movie. I think it’s always like “Oh, the dad, or the kid, the wife, the mother.. “, those are strong things that we always talk about. For us, it’s just sort of talking about the origins of the story; that these guys go into battle for their families, or their children. I think it’s easy stuff to win. It made its way into the story pretty easily.
What more can you say about the film?
Zack Snyder: I guess, well, look, we have an amazing cast and you can see that they’re funny and smart and physical and amazing actors. We have an awesome director who made I think a picture that, it is true that when we made 300, in truth, a lot of the movie was also created with economic restrictions. We had this idea of the style of the movie we wanted to make, and we knew it was a boutique-y movie; we thought it was a movie for kind of a small audience that would be into this kind of crazy, comic-booky sword and sandals movie. It was kind of a genre that didn’t exist – you know, there are sword and sandals movies and comic book movies, but there wasn’t the rules of mashing those things up wasn’t really [around]. And Frank had done it in the comic book, and to me when I read the comic book, it was oh, this is an amazing comic book, I remembered, and I the cool thing about what these guys have done and the movie has done is that it took that language without a comic book, because Frank hasn’t finished it, but sort of with Frank’s inspiration flowing across, frankly, her and I first and then Noam and now these guys, that what he did in that book is kind of echoed across in the movie. And I think that’s what he did, because I was not 100 percent sure when we first – when we finished 300, it’s like, well, they all died, I guess that’s it. We didn’t really think there could be another movie. But I think when Frank came and said this other thing happened on the same three days as Thermopylae, we were like, what? That’s cool. And actually it’s really fun for me to see these two movies kind of exist now next to each other. We were talking about how, oh, you could cut them together, actually, if you were ambitious – and maybe some fans will do that. But it’s really satisfying for me because in a way it’s come full circle for me.
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