Thermopylae comes to Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hollywood Reporter says Gerard Butler -- the star of Dear Frankie (my review), Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and the upcoming Beowulf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/08\/thermopylae-comes-to-canada.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thermopylae comes to Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hollywood Reporter says Gerard Butler -- the star of Dear Frankie (my review), Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and the upcoming Beowulf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/08\/thermopylae-comes-to-canada.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-08-16T07:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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{"id":2647,"date":"2005-08-16T07:43:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T07:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/08\/thermopylae-comes-to-canada\/"},"modified":"2005-08-16T07:43:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T07:43:00","slug":"thermopylae-comes-to-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/08\/thermopylae-comes-to-canada.html","title":{"rendered":"Thermopylae comes to Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> says Gerard Butler \u2014 the star of Dear Frankie<\/a><\/i> (my review<\/a>), Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s Phantom of the Opera<\/a><\/i> and the upcoming Beowulf & Grendel<\/a><\/i> \u2014 will play Spartan King Leonidas I in 300<\/a><\/i>, a new film about the Battle of Thermopylae<\/a>. Those expecting a standard sword-and-sandals ancient-battle epic may be in for a bit of a shock, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film is being co-written and directed by Zack Snyder, whose only other feature film to date is last year\u2019s remake of Dawn of the Dead<\/a><\/i>; and it will be based not directly on history, but on a comic<\/a> by Frank Miller, whose work on the Daredevil<\/a> and Batman<\/a> comics inspired the recent films based on those characters, and whose pulpy, hard-boiled Sin City<\/a><\/i> stories were recently made into a movie<\/a> directed by Robert Rodriguez (my review<\/a>).<\/p>\n

And, just as Rodriguez went out of his way to capture the look and feel of Miller\u2019s art, the Reporter<\/i> says Snyder and the studio plan \u201cto make the film in the style of the comic . . . Heavy use of greenscreen and virtual sets is being mapped out but with an eye toward maintaining the look of the graphic novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could be good, could be bad. I haven\u2019t read this particular comic of Miller\u2019s yet, so I cannot comment on his narrative treatment of the subject matter or the look that these filmmakers are trying to capture. On the one hand, I suspect I would probably prefer something more explicitly historical and authentic; but on the other hand, I enjoy the explicit theatricality of films like The Ten Commandments<\/a><\/i> (1956), so what\u2019s another form of stylization. The ancient-epic genre has been growing pretty stale of late, so who knows, this may be just the kick in the pants it needs.<\/p>\n

Shooting begins in Montreal, of all places, in October.<\/p>\n

AUG 18 UPDATE: Or maybe shooting begins in Vancouver<\/i>. So says Lynne McNamara in yesterday\u2019s Vancouver Sun<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

AUG 21 UPDATE: Nope, looks like it will be shot in Montreal after all. McNamara admitted she got it wrong yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"