Preview: 300
Teen Hollywood.com
December 28, 2006
by Lynn Barker
Don't you just love those underdog stories? "300" was a popular graphic novel by Frank Miller about the hard-fought, ancient Battle of Thermopylae.
Coming up in March will be a movie version of the tale. Like Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, live action actors were filmed against green screens with a few props. We saw a preview of the result and it's pretty impressive to watch.
Hot Gerard Butler stars as Greek King Leonidas who led his brave 300 Spartans against tyrannical Xerxes and his humungous Persian army thus uniting all of Greece in a stand for democracy. At the king's side was his savvy and spunky wife Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) whom you probably saw in The Brothers Grimm and the creepfest The Cave. Lena will also star in Fox's upcoming TV series "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" based upon the lead character in the Terminator films.
Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) told TeenHollywood that he was totally impressed by Frank Miller's graphic novel and wanted to adapt it to screen but at the time, Troy with Brad Pitt was being made. Although different, both would be considered "Sword and Sandal" epics. Later, the time was right. The film was shot in 60 days in a big empty factory in Montreal on green screen with tons of CGI work to follow. The ten minutes of the film that we saw was big on action but also had some pretty hot love scenes and character development. Snyder told us that the actors had to work out to achieve the kind of fighting bodies needed for the roles.
Frank Miller was also in attendance and expressed that he was happy with the results of the adaptation of his work. Keep an eye out for the Warner Brothers film early this coming Spring.
http://www.teenhollywood.com/d.asp?r=139437&c=1055