First Look - Dispatches from the MovieMaking Front

First Look - Dispatches from the MovieMaking Front

November 11, 2006

Premiere Magazine - December 2006 Issue


Tom Russo

300
Starring Gerard Butler, David Wenham, and Lena Headey; Directed by Zack Snyder

In the year 480 B.C., a detachment of just 300 Spartan warriors led a doomed, heroic stand against Persia's massive invading army. "They're so cocky," says Butler (The Phantom of the Opera), who plays Leonidas, the Spartan king, in this adaptation so Frank Miller's (Sin City) graphic novel account of the Battle of Thermopylae. "They take great joy in going to war: 'We're here, and we're going to have a f***ing ball.'"

Departing from the sun-backed location approach of other sword-and-sandal fare, Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) and his crew shot their reenactment of the episode entirely on a Montreal blue-screen stage, inserting their dark, sinewy backdrops afterward. "Frank's books are the exact opposite of technological, because they're so organic," says Synder. "But if you're serious about translating his visuals into a movie, CGI is the only way. The landscapes, the perspectives, just don't exist."


Set Fact: Per Frank Miller's book, and history, most of the cast wore only capes and codpieces, despite the winter shoot. "I had a very nervous conversation with Zack," Wenham said at Comic-Con.


http://www.premiere.com