'Xerxes' sequel to "300" movie.

[kiwi_2005]

:rock: 300 is one of the best movies to ever come out for me, seen it 7 times. Now the fans will be getting another treat lets hope Xerxes turns out as good as 300.


Zack Synder ("300," "Watchmen") has confirmed a film adaptation of the sequel to "300" is moving considerably along.

"We [he and his "300" script collaborator Kurt Johnstad] closed the writing deal on 'Xerxes.' We started writing about a week ago. So we're doing it. It's happening" says Snyder in an interview with The Los Angeles Times.

It's expected Snyder will direct but nothing is locked yet. "It's really going to depend on what the studio wants to do and what we do when we finish; I don't have a directing deal in place but we are writing it, so call it intent" says Snyder.

Frank Miller's "Xerxes" comic, set to be published in coming months, follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium. Because events somewhat crossover with those in "300", Snyder says that it will be the same stylised visuals of that film.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/17811/-300-prequel-begins-scripting

[Raptor1]

Artemisium? Interesting, as long as they don't butcher the historical accuracy...which I fully expect them to...

[Oberon]

In before obligatory "This is madness" quote. :yep:

[Jimbuna]

In before obligatory "This is madness" quote. :yep:

Looking forward to it http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/517/thisisspartapz01.gif (http://img836.imageshack.us/i/thisisspartapz01.gif/)

[August]

Well I'm gonna watch it in the shade... :yep:

[frau kaleun]

Artemisium? Interesting, as long as they don't butcher the historical accuracy...which I fully expect them to...

I assume that, like 300, the sequel will be not be based on or extrapolated from actual history, but on the graphic novel - so consider your history already butchered.

Given the source material, I thought 300 was very well done and plenty entertaining for my money. My main gripe with it has always been that its existence and success pretty much kills the possibility of someone doing a decent film* about Thermopylae that is more of a historical drama and less a live action comic book. :wah:



*And no The 300 Spartans doesn't count.

[Sailor Steve]

I thought Frank Miller's book had a better layout than the movie. And I thought the movie was stupid. Well, it had Lena Heady topless, so I guess that counts for something.

*And no The 300 Spartans doesn't count.
Good thing you put that in. I liked the old movie, but I'll admit it's not one I'd recommend to everybody. Or to anybody who isn't me.

[frau kaleun]

I thought Frank Miller's book had a better layout than the movie. And I thought the movie was stupid.

I never read the graphic novel but I flipped through it once so I sorta knew what we were in for with the movie.

There are some things about 300 that I find off-putting for various reasons but overall, I enjoyed it for what it was and not what I'd hoped it would be when I first heard someone was making a movie about Thermopylae.

Well, it had Lena Heady topless, so I guess that counts for something.

And I got 300 sweaty nearly-nekkid men CGIed to maximum hotness. WIth swords and spears! Also, Gerard Butler's backside. No complaints there.

Good thing you put that in. I liked the old movie, but I'll admit it's not one I'd recommend to everybody. Or to anybody who isn't me.

I caught about half an hour of this on television a few years back. I was so excited when I saw the listing but then I simply could not sit through it. Even Ralph Richardson didn't help.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Artemisium? Interesting, as long as they don't butcher the historical accuracy...which I fully expect them to...
Historical accuracy?

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/556351/769774.jpg

THIS IS HOLLYWOOOOOOOOD


(Rated M for Manly)

[Raptor1]

Yes, yes. I can at least have futile hopes, can't I?

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, yes. I can at least have futile hopes, can't I?
What would life be without them? :sunny:

[jumpy]

hmmm, more homoerotic nonsense... just an excuse for blokes to wear make-up on their chests and stomachs... Though I'm sure this will appeal to some of the ladies. :DL

As for the storyline of 300 - it's nothing more than a reasonably good yarn, loosely based upon something that happened in the mists of antiquity; a bit like Troy (I was expecting great things given the cast involved, but I guess you cannot expect a faithful reproduction of the Iliad or the Odyssey - you'd have a film that took as long to watch as the books take to read lol)

The whole thermopylae thing is a cinematic staple; the few against the many etc.

I like this take on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zDM8XakVpU

[Ducimus]

If it's anything like 300, (history butchered), I'll pass.

I love action movies, but watching 300 in the theater, i was half tempted to walk out and go home. The history geek in me was screaming, "This is an outrage!" :88)

[frau kaleun]

hmmm, more homoerotic nonsense

:haha: Well I wasn't even gonna bring up that aspect of it, but...

Actually one of the things I found off-putting was the attempt to portray the Spartans' ultra-manliness, the comic book equivalent of that being (of course) ultra-heterosexualtiy, by having them insult other supposedly lesser men by, basically, calling them queers.

When pretty much every source I've ever seen on ancient Spartan military culture indicates that homosexual relationships between Spartiates was not only tolerated but encouraged and possibly even compulsory.

I was also put off by the bizarre portrayal of the Spartan ephors, which I'm assuming was faithful to the graphic novel but was WAY out there. But given the world we live in, the homophobic remarks within the context of so much thinly veiled homoeroticism really rubbed me the wrong way.

[Raptor1]

When pretty much every source I've ever seen on ancient Spartan military culture indicates that homosexual relationships between Spartiates was not only tolerated but encouraged and possibly even compulsory.


Are you sure that's the Spartans rather than the Theban Sacred Band?

[Sailor Steve]

Are you sure that's the Spartans rather than the Theban Sacred Band?
I can't say for sure, but a friend who reads Greek and Latin once told me that the ancient Greeks in general believed that the only possible true love was between members of the same sex. To that end they invented marriage to force a man and a woman into a bond mainly for the purpose of raising children.

I don't know, but that's what I was told.

[Tchocky]

When you run all the slow-mo at normal speed, I think 300 tops out at around 37 minutes.

[jumpy]

@ Raptor1
Yup, spartan young men/boys were 'mentored' by an older chap, this included a physical element. Something I watched recently (bettany hughes (http://www.bettanyhughes.co.uk/welcome.htm) iirc) said that on the spartan marriage night, the women would have their heads shaved and the fella would go to her, but return to his barracks. Supposedly this was because the men had little or no contact with women, so the head shaving thing was to make it easier for the bloke to do his thing *ahem* Quite how this sits with the duty of spartan men and women to produce the next generation of warriors is not always clear.
I'll see if I can find the program and link it here.

I think this is it: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-ancient-world-with-bettany-hughes/episode-guide/series-6/episode-7

[Raptor1]

Well, the Theban Sacred Band was most famous (Or infamous) for it, so it seems to me that it can't have been that widespread or they wouldn't have been famous for it.

[jumpy]

lol

I studied Classics for a couple of years, and by all accounts, the maxim for those times was as follows: a boy for pleasure, and a woman for the home/child bearing.
It's a common theme in most all of classical literature, from Plato, to Homer, Aeschylus and Euripides, to name but a few.

[frau kaleun]

@ Raptor1
Yup, spartan young men/boys were 'mentored' by an older chap, this included a physical element. Something I watched recently (bettany hughes (http://www.bettanyhughes.co.uk/welcome.htm) iirc) said that on the spartan marriage night, the women would have their heads shaved and the fella would go to her, but return to his barracks. Supposedly this was because the men had little or no contact with women, so the head shaving thing was to make it easier for the bloke to do his thing *ahem* Quite how this sits with the duty of spartan men and women to produce the next generation of warriors is not always clear.
I'll see if I can find the program and link it here.

I think this is it: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-ancient-world-with-bettany-hughes/episode-guide/series-6/episode-7

I have the DVDs of The Spartans, hosted/narrated by Hughes. It ran on PBS over here IIRC.

It's true that the Spartiates had little contact with their wives, primarily due to the fact that they were on constant military duty. If not out fighting somewhere, they were at home training for it - and they lived in their barracks.

While this gave them a good deal of military superiority for a time, it was one of the factors that eventually contributed to their downfall as a major power within the ancient Greek world because as time went on, they simply could not replace each generation with an equal number of young up-and-comers.

Take a significant lack of opportunity for regular procreative sexual activity, the increased likelihood of men to die before siring very many children, the Spartan tradition of discarding any infant who was deemed unfit to fulfill the expected role in their society, and add in the typically high infant mortality rate of the times - and you have a recipe for cultural self-destruction.

[frau kaleun]

Well, the Theban Sacred Band was most famous (Or infamous) for it, so it seems to me that it can't have been that widespread or they wouldn't have been famous for it.

IIRC the Theban Band was a small fighting elite within the Theban military proper, and they were delierately chosen so that the group consisted entirely of pairs of devoted lovers. With the Spartans, it was the custom for a young man entering the ranks to have as a lover/mentor an older man from the same barracks, but (AFAIK) no attempt to create a special "elite force" within the ranks based on those relationships.

[Raptor1]

I have the DVDs of The Spartans, hosted/narrated by Hughes. It ran on PBS over here IIRC.

It's true that the Spartiates had little contact with their wives, primarily due to the fact that they were on constant military duty. If not out fighting somewhere, they were at home training for it - and they lived in their barracks.

While this gave them a good deal of military superiority for a time, it was one of the factors that eventually contributed to their downfall as a major power within the ancient Greek world because as time went on, they simply could not replace each generation with an equal number of young up-and-comers.

Take a significant lack of opportunity for regular procreative sexual activity, the increased likelihood of men to die before siring very many children, the Spartan tradition of discarding any infant who was deemed unfit to fulfill the expected role in their society, and add in the typically high infant mortality rate of the times - and you have a recipe for cultural self-destruction.

They also suffered several rather humiliating defeats which lost them any pretence of being a major power by the early 4th century BC.

IIRC the Theban Band was a small fighting elite within the Theban military proper, and they were delierately chosen so that the group consisted entirely of pairs of devoted lovers. With the Spartans, it was the custom for a young man entering the ranks to have as a lover/mentor an older man from the same barracks, but (AFAIK) no attempt to create a special "elite force" within the ranks based on those relationships.

Yes, but how could they be considered an elite force because of it if pretty much everyone was doing it?

[jumpy]

@ frau kaleun
Indeed.
Odd how the spartans are often held up as some kind of archetype society (social engineering success, if you will). Many of the comparisons deal with the place of women in these cultures, with spartan women having liberties far above those granted to women in other greek city states.
For all of spartan honour and liberty, as a state and society they ultimately failed to grow beyond their warrior culture and the structure designed to support it - the irony being that the very rigidity that made sparta what it is most famous for, is also what led to its destruction.

There's a good wiki link on the Theban Band http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theban_Band

[nikimcbee]

The most important question is, Will Carmen Electra be in it?

[jumpy]

lol

google image search if you've been living on mars for the last aeon. hehehe

[TLAM Strike]

I studied Classics for a couple of years, and by all accounts, the maxim for those times was as follows: a boy for pleasure, and a woman for the home/child bearing. Still a common mentality in some regions of the world... :hmmm:

[frau kaleun]

Yes, but how could they be considered an elite force because of it if pretty much everyone was doing it?

The difference is that the Theban Sacred Band consisted entirely of pairs of homosexual lovers who were particularly devoted to each other and chosen to serve as a couple because of that. The relationship was a prerequisite for selection.

Spartiates were going to be soldiers in the Spartan army (provided they survived the training) no matter what. Homosexual relationships may have been allowed, encouraged, or forced on them as a matter of custom, but they were not required to be part of a pre-existing and especially devoted couple in order to qualify for service, or to make up any specially chosen elite force within the Spartan army proper.

[Stealth Hunter]

That guy from 300 made for an awesome Xerxes. Not accurate at all but awesome still. I assume he'll be reprising his role for this film, yes?

[nikimcbee]

That guy from 300 made for an awesome Xerxes. Not accurate at all but awesome still. I assume he'll be reprising his role for this film, yes?

http://www.azcentral.com/i/sized/2/6/A/e298/j350/PHP479A59FBF0A62.jpg

?

[Raptor1]

The difference is that the Theban Sacred Band consisted entirely of pairs of homosexual lovers who were particularly devoted to each other and chosen to serve as a couple because of that. The relationship was a prerequisite for selection.

Spartiates were going to be soldiers in the Spartan army (provided they survived the training) no matter what. Homosexual relationships may have been allowed, encouraged, or forced on them as a matter of custom, but they were not required to be part of a pre-existing and especially devoted couple in order to qualify for service, or to make up any specially chosen elite force within the Spartan army proper.

Ah, that makes sense...somewhat...