300: Rise of an Empire

[areaseven]

300: Rise of an Empire is the upcoming prequel/sequel to the 2006 film 300. The film is based on the story Xerxes by Frank Miller, which in turn was inspired by the naval-based Battle of Artemisium. Noam Murro takes over the director's chair from Zack Snyder, who is now the film's co-producer. The film will feature return appearances of these actors:

• Lena Headey (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Ma-Ma in Dredd) as Queen Gorgo
• Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes
• David Wenham (Faramir in The Lord of the Rings) as Dilios
• Andrew Tiernan as Ephialtes

The new main cast consists of the following:

• Sullivan Stapleton (Damien Scott in Strike Back, Jack Whalen in Gangster Squad) as Themistocles
• Eva Green (Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, Ava Lord in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) as Artemisia
• Callan Mulvey as Scyllias
• Jack O'Connell as Calisto
• Hans Matheson (Lord Coward in Sherlock Holmes, Ixas in Clash of the Titans) as Aeskylos

Dutch electronica musician Junkie XL will provide the soundtrack score.

Originally planned for release on August 2, 300: Rise of an Empire hits theaters on March 7, 2014.

Official Site Edited March 5, 2014 by areaseven

[Duke Togo]

No

[renegadeleader1]

HELL NO!

[Hikuro]

Hm, think I'll pass.

[Ghost Train]

Movie about the Peloponnessian war plz (Athens vs Sparta)...

[Murphy]

Why on gods green earth would they make this?

[frothymug]

Because the Battle of Salamis was equally as important as the Battle of Thermopylae, which was featured in the first film. Salamis was basically a smaller Greek navy putting the smackdown on a much larger Persian Navy.

I think I will have to check this one out. It probably won't be as badass as 300, but it will at least shine some spotlight on Themistocles's effectiveness as a leader.

[Gakken85]

Meh.

[Negotiator]

Just be happy it's not immortals. This looks like it could be good and entertaining.

[electric indigo]

Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Sparta anymore.

[myk]

I wonder if they'll let me wear my Spartan warrior costume to the premiere. It's a shame I can't wear that cape more often...

[Dynaman]

300 was garbage, no suprised to see they are making more. (garbage that is)

[TehPW]

Eye of the Beholder, mate. i might give it a try if i can get help from my G-mom for minion-duty...

[taksraven]

Me and the fifty kids I teach that are currently studying this era of Greek/Persian history are PUMPED to see this. Just too bad that we have to wait so long. Even with historical innacuracies, bad dialogue and stylised violence it will still give us a lot to talk about, even if it's just to pick it apart.

The recreation of Persepolis looks outstanding, even if it probably isn't that accurate.

[camk4evr]

Even though watching the trailor made me want to bang my head on my desk until I blacked out (that way I could pretend it was all a bad dream) I'll probably watch it. When it's on TV (cause there's no way I'm paying to see that)

[CoryHolmes]

The recreation of Persepolis looks outstanding, even if it probably isn't that accurate.

Actually, the first film was rather accurate, even if certain... "liberties" were taken with the details. I rather enjoyed the first one for what it was and I'm cautiously optimistic about this film.

Of course, I had it my head that a proper sequel to 300 would be to tell the story of the Persians from their perspective. As much as the one-eyed Spartan skewed the story in his campfire tale, I'd like to see this version skewed in the favour of the Persians.

So instead of large, open-plain battles against Spartan Supersoldiers, the Persians fought against hordes of their mooks while the Spartans held back in their phalanx formation. Instead of being a deformed mess rejected, the traitor was instead a defector against Spartan decadence, doing the right thing in helping the Persians out...

[Dynaman]

> Actually, the first film was rather accurate, even if certain... "liberties" were taken with the details.

Some of those liberties include.

1 - Ignoring the hundreds/thousands of allies the Spartans had. (thousands if including everyone on their side at the battle, hundreds if just including those in the rear guard)

2 - Making them nearly naked, they wore heavy armor.

3 - They fought in a formation called a phalanx, if they had fought as depicted in the movie they would have been annihilated in minutes.

A movie CAN be totally unrealistic and fun (Inglorious Bastards and Dirty Dozen come to mind) but 300 was nothing but garbage. Trying to take it serious at ALL is a very bad idea.

[Uxi]

I would ordinarily be very interested but for the complete mangling of history in 300: It wouldn't have been too much to show that Sparta had TWO Kings, the real nature of the Ephors if not Spartan society in general (some downtrodden Helots laboring in the background so that Homoioi could afford the luxury of military devotion, etc), and that Leondias and the Spartans CHOSE to honor the Carneia amd the Olympic Truce instead of the typical hollyweird treatment of religion which had me rolling my eyes. Much less actually holding in a phalanx.

[Duke Togo]

A movie CAN be totally unrealistic and fun (Inglorious Bastards and Dirty Dozen come to mind) but 300 was nothing but garbage. Trying to take it serious at ALL is a very bad idea.

This

[Keith]

Only made it 15 minutes into 300, and never went back.

[Duke Togo]

In all fairness, I should point out that 300 is more historically accurate than Braveheart was. For what it's worth...

[CoryHolmes]

> Actually, the first film was rather accurate, even if certain... "liberties" were taken with the details.

Some of those liberties include.

1 - Ignoring the hundreds/thousands of allies the Spartans had. (thousands if including everyone on their side at the battle, hundreds if just including those in the rear guard)

2 - Making them nearly naked, they wore heavy armor.

3 - They fought in a formation called a phalanx, if they had fought as depicted in the movie they would have been annihilated in minutes.

A movie CAN be totally unrealistic and fun (Inglorious Bastards and Dirty Dozen come to mind) but 300 was nothing but garbage. Trying to take it serious at ALL is a very bad idea.

Oh, absolutely. Even the creators made note of this, but excused it by saying that the one-eyed Spartan whom was telling the tale didn't "let reality get in the way of a good story".

Of course he's going to skew things in Sparta's favour, emphasing the great warriors and vilifying the enemy. I know they didn't have a giant troll-like creature to fight for them, but it does make for a good yarn

Which is why I'd like to see the tale told in that style from the Persian's perspective. Could be fun stuff.

[taksraven]

Everybody seems to be forgetting that we have a tiny handful of sources describing the events of the Persian Wars anyway, and pretty much all Greek sources. If there was any Persian documentation chances are it was destroyed by Alexander and his forces when they invaded Persia.. Soooooo, pretty much any telling of the tale is going to have horrible bias anyway.

Anyway, in saying that, I too would love to see an attempt to portray these events from a Persian perspective too, one in which Xerxes actually looks the way he did in Persian art.....

Edited June 16, 2013 by taksraven

[Agent ONE]

I will watch it. I would not if Gerard Butler were in it. That guy should not ever be in film. He is so annoying to watch.

[areaseven]

[taksraven]

Yay for me, just got my Ancient History Teacher qualifications. Gonna celebrate with this in a few months. YAY!!!

[areaseven]

[myk]

I will watch it. I would not if Gerard Butler were in it. That guy should not ever be in film. He is so annoying to watch.

You didn't like him in the original 300? I thought he played the role well...

[Agent ONE]

You didn't like him in the original 300? I thought he played the role well...

I liked the orig 300, just not him.

[Mommar]

300: I'm on a boat.

[Ghost Train]

The more I think about Frank Miller's 300, the more I'm disturbed by its message.

For starters, the general theme does not fit well into our modern society's ideas of diversity. Think about it, it's a story of a small homogeneous Greek society fighting against Xerxes' multicultural army. The Spartans are depicted as very effective soldiers whereas the diverse Persian army was clumsy and untrained. To add insult to injury, this diverse army is depicted as monstrous, from the giant berserker, the fat dude with knife hands, and the disfigured immortals. In contrast the Spartans looked like perfectly toned humans.

And yeah.... first Persian casualty, a black guy.

I'm not going to ding the film for not mentioning how the Greeks were expert slavery practitioners, but portraying the Spartans fighting for freeeedoooooooom is just sickening. Yes, the film does open up with how Spartans euthanize newborn they consider inferior, but guess what, they also pin the defeat of the Spartans on the physically deformed Ephialthes.

300 just distorts history beyond measure. In reality, the Achaemnid Persian dynasty was well known for its tolerance cultural, and economic achievements. They even get credit in the Old Testament by inviting the Israelites back to their homeland after a period of subjugation. And no.... they didn't just invade the Greek city states because they hated freedom.

But yeah whatever....

Edited December 6, 2013 by Ghost Train

[mechaninac]

Wow! Just wow!

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

Edited December 6, 2013 by mechaninac

[skullmilitia]

That trailer was terrible, which means that the movie will be worse.

Seriously can someone tell Snyder to go away?

[electric indigo]

The more I think about Frank Miller's 300, the more I'm disturbed by its message.

<snip>

Brilliant!

[Uxi]

The more I think about Frank Miller's 300, the more I'm disturbed by its message.

For starters, the general theme does not fit well into our modern society's ideas of diversity. Think about it, it's a story of a small homogeneous Greek society fighting against Xerxes' multicultural army. The Spartans are depicted as very effective soldiers whereas the diverse Persian army was clumsy and untrained. To add insult to injury, this diverse army is depicted as monstrous, from the giant berserker, the fat dude with knife hands, and the disfigured immortals. In contrast the Spartans looked like perfectly toned humans.

Heh, I remember thinking how it would seem if the roles were reversed and it was the Persians who were killing the Greek ambassador, and committing all kinds of atrocities (refusing to take prisoners and killing enemy POW, practicing domestic child abuse, infanticide, and pimping/drugging that oracle chic who couldn't consent to getting prodded and tasted by those ephors-mutants while the King watched, etc) and were just as corrupt as anything on Xerxes side (the ephors-mutants as well as the traitorous council guy who seemed like he should have still been of fighting age as did most of that weird council thing they had going on). Hell Gorgo is an adulterer...

:whistles: