Originally Posted by Geoff Boucher

It was the 2007 hit film “300,” though, that truly captured the attention of Hollywood executives with $456 million in worldwide box office off a $67-million budget.

The Zack Snyder film, the highest-grossing March release ever, was based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about King Leonidas and his doomed army of Spartans; Miller is preparing a follow-up now titled “Xerxes,” which begins about 10 years before the events of “300,” and Snyder has expressed interest in it as a film property as well. “It’s the battle of Marathon through my lens,” Miller said Wednesday. “I’ve finished the plot and I’m getting started on the artwork.”

Miller said he is not surprised Greece is resurgent in Hollywood. “Every generation returns to ancient Greece because, well, the stories are so damn good,” said the artist, who also directed last year’s “The Spirit.” Miller said that during his research trips to Greece he realized that the myth and history overlap begins to blur, which adds to the storytelling allure. “The fact and the myth are inseparable and, believe me, when you go sailing for a while in the Aegean Sea, you start believing in Poseidon.”

Originally Posted by Ratcrawler (Post 17894054)

I guess it chronicles his rise to power.

Originally Posted by Claude Brodesser-Akner

If you’re like most of Vulture readers, you don’t need us to tell you that Xerxes the Great was the fourth Zoroastrian king of the Achamenid Empire. Du-uh. But what you do need your Vulture editors to tell you is that Warner Bros. has offered Xerxes — the sequel to Zach Snyder’s epic 300 — to none other than Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie.

Like 300 before it, Xerxes is based on one of Frank Miller’s graphic novels and had been developed by Snyder, who'd planned to direct his own script. So what gives?

One theory is that Warner Bros. needs Snyder to bear down on Superman stat: Insiders say the closely-guarded script for Superman suffers from major third-act problems, and the studio faces a ticking clock on that franchise, legally speaking; if a Superman film isn’t in production by 2013, Warner Bros. loses the rights to the entire Superman franchise and would have to re-license it from its original creators — the estates of Detective Comics writers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — at great if not prohibitive expense.

But there’s another theory: At a recent Warner Bros.—conducted audience research screening of Snyder’s Sucker Punch, the film tested poorly. Says one insider familiar with it, “It was bad; like, really bad. They’re [Warners brass] really not happy with it over there.”

That, plus with Snyder’s last two films (Watchmen and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole) having under-performed, some insiders posit that offering Ritchie Xerxes means that Warner’s ardor for all things Snyder may be cooling just a bit.

Regardless, we’re pleased that Xerxes (a.k.a. King Ahasuerus) is heating up — and just in time for Purim! We have only one question: Cherry or apricot hamantashen, Guy?

Originally Posted by MIKE FLEMING

The producers of the 300 spinoff known as Xerxes have retitled their film 300: Battle of Artemisia, and they have also narrowed their focus of potential directors to two: Noam Murro and Jaume Collet-Serra. The film, a spinoff to 300, is one that the film's original director Zack Snyder was going to direct. That was until Warner Bros and producer Chris Nolan offered him Man of Steel, and Snyder and wife and producing partner Debra Snyder put Xerxes aside and moved on to rebooting the Superman franchise because Warner Bros needed it. The Snyders have been all over this director selection process. Snyder had written a script with his 300 cohort Kurt Johnstad. Like 300, it is based on a Frank Miller graphic novel that will be shot with the kind of stylized period green-screen action visuals that became the signature of 300 and helped the film gross $456 million worldwide. Xerxes was the Persian leader seen in 300. Miller's graphic novel told the story of how Xerxes became this peculiar god-like entity. That mythology goes back to the death of his father, Darius, from injuries sustained at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Darius had told his son not to attack the Greeks because they can only be punished by a god, and so Xerxes tried to transform himself into a deity to gain revenge. The new pic's produced by the Snyders, Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari, Thomas Tull and Bernie Goldmann. The prime mover on the film has been Legendary Pictures, which made the original with Warner Bros and has taken the lead on several big-ticket pictures since Tull recapitalized his producing/financing company. That includes the Guillermo del Toro-directed Pacific Rim with Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba and the Alex Proyas-directed Paradise Lost with Bradley Cooper.

As for those directors: Murro's sole directing credit is the Sarah Jessica Parker-starrer Smart People for Miramax, but his calling card for big-scale movie making is his commercials work on campaigns that include the Halo video game. He’s a five-time DGA-nominated commercials director, won two Golden Lions at Cannes and last year signed a deal to develop to direct the next Die Hard film at 20th Century Fox. Collett-Serra directed the sleeper hit Unknown for Warner Bros, and he's prepping to direct Red Circle for Working Title and StudioCanal. He's also developing the vampire tale Harker with Appian Way at Warner Bros. Both are repped by CAA and Murro is managed by 360's Guymon Casady.