300 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While Cinematical has been busy covering all the movie-related Comic Con treats, our sister site TV Squad has been knee deep in all-things boob tube. Similar to film, all the genre-based TV shows bring their stars to Comic Con to preview upcoming seasons and geek out with fellow fans. Today is the biggest day for television at Con, and so we'll report back tomorrow with some of the stuff our friends over at TV Squad managed to uncover -- but in the meantime, here's a taste of what they've been up to so far.

-- Did you know Starz was getting ready to premiere a new show called Spartacus: Blood and Sand? No, it's not Sparta or anything (it actually takes place in Rome and follows the city's most famous gladiator), though the brand new trailer totally looks like Ridley Scott's Gladiator ... if Zack Snyder directed it instead. Seriously, the thing has such a 300 vibe that for a second I thought it was from the same team, but it's not. Know who's behind this? Sam Raimi. Yup, it's Raimi, Rob Talpert (Drag Me to Hell) and Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville) executive producing, while Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess), Peter Mensa (300) and Erin Cummings (Dollhouse) star. The show itself looks bloody, vicious and pretty awesome, especially for those who dug the violence overload in 300.

Watch the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think ...

Many people think that a movie needs to avoid an R-rating in order to become a blockbuster. Most recent top earners have followed that dictum, with only four R-rated movies among last year's top 25 at the box office. Zack Snyder's 300 was a defiant exception in 2007, earning more than $456 million worldwide, and clearing the way for Snyder's R-rated dream project, Watchmen. Its content advisory warns / promises: "Strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language." Can such an R-rated superhero movie become a blockbuster today, especially in the wake of PG-13 smashes like The Dark Knight and Iron Man?

If the history of the movies has taught us anything, it's that people will flock to see films that they really, really want to see, no matter the rating. As evidence, here are seven R-rated films with strong, adult content that may have made some folks blanch -- but it didn't keep the flicks from becoming blockbusters.

Basic Instinct
Paul Verhoeven's thriller has it all: sex, violence, profanity, and very adult themes. The most notorious shot features Sharon Stone's, er, legs, but the flick also includes male and female nudity, intense sex scenes, stabbing, blood spattering, dozens of profanities, and relentless sexual innuendos. But it's not just a sensationalist button-pusher. Indeed, Basic Instinct lives up to its title in its dogged, sometimes earnest exploration of the basest desires known to man or woman. It may have tittilated, but it also made you think long after the credits rolled.

Hollywood isn't known as a place for a 'conservative' frame of mind. I think Sean Penn reminded us of that quite nicely during his Oscar acceptance speech when he endearingly referred to the crowd of tinsel-town elite as "You Commie Homo-Loving Sons of Guns". But that doesn't mean our Red-state friends don't like to go to the movies just as much as their liberal brethren -- so what's a Conservative to do? Well, the National Review has come to the rescue and compiled a list of The Best Conservative Movies. And how does a movie arrive on such a list? According to NR, "Conservatives enjoy these films because they are great movies that offer compelling messages about freedom, families, patriotism, traditions, and more" -- because I guess it is impossible for someone with Liberal political views to care about those things. So even though the political leanings of the cast and crew reportedly did not come into play for the list, I'm not sure I believe the addition of David Mamet's The Edge wasn't inspired (if only a little) by the filmmakers political 180 earlier this year.

Now for the list itself, well, there are the obvious choices like Red Dawn, 300 and The Dark Knight that are praised for their themes featuring individuals fighting against a terrorist, invading hoards, and a chorus of naysayers (sound familiar?). But the rest of the list isn't so obvious, and there are some weird selections in the bunch. Juno was noted for being pro-life (but punished for its heroines "unrealistic level of self-confidence"), Brazil for its tale of bureaucracy run amok, Groundhog Day for promoting small town values, and The Incredibles was even noted for bringing a little Ayn Rand back to the kiddie set. Personal politics aside, I have to wonder just what, exactly, some of these people were on when they included Ghostbusters on the list (I know, I know, an EPA guy is a bad guy, but c'mon, leave Dr. Venkman out of this).

I know, I know -- "sequelized" isn't a word, but it's the most fitting label I can come up with. Ever since 300 hit theaters in March 2007, there has been talk of creating some kind of spin off. Would it be a prequel? Would it be a sequel? Would it be some demented fever dream invented by one Cinematical blogger on a late Colorado night?

Well, someone finally asked a 300 alumni other than poor Gerard Butler. IESB.net caught up with director Zack Snyder, who revealed that 300 would receive the sequel treatment. Snyder did the impossible, and actually spoke to Frank Miller about it, and learned he's writing a graphic novel that takes place between Thermopylae and the Battle of Plataea which is seen at the end of the film. There's a mere year in between waiting to be populated with new Spartan heroes (though David Wenham's lone survivor, Dilios, could return) by way of Miller's pen. Snyder promises to direct the adaptation when Miller finishes the book.

There's certainly historical material to draw from -- the time between Thermopylae and Plataea was marked by several battles -- the naval Battle of Artemisium, which occurred alongside Thermopylae, and the Battle of Salamis. Both were victories for the Greek states (although Artemisium could be argued to be a draw), but not without cost. Several Greek cities, including Athens, suffered severe Persian attacks.

But while the Greco-Persian Wars are ripe for many stories and movies, I don't see any of them fitting the hyper-stylized mold of the original graphic novel or the film. The insanity of it all worked because it had a legendary story and king to anchor it down, and shine through the blood-splatters and giant rhinos. Why water that down? As fond as I am of Snyder, Miller and violent boys in leather pants, I wish they would just let the Spartans lie.

Gerard Butler may have once sported the greatest eight-pack in the history of mankind, but his punishment for it (besides all the puking and crying I assume happened in the shaping of it) will be to answer questions about a 300 spin-off until the end of his career.

While at the Toronto Film Festival, where many of my lucky colleagues are, Butler was asked again about the franchise potential of 299 dead Spartans by Superhero Hype. "I've heard some backroom chatter, but nothing more, so I don't know if it would be a sequel or a prequel. I don't want say anymore than that, because I really don't know. I haven't read anything. I can't see it myself -- sequel for me absolutely not, but I just mean the idea generally, I'm really not sure which way they would go with that."

He was asked this same question at RocknRolla's ComicCon junket, and his answer then suggested he'd actually been approached with a more solid idea. "No. They mentioned it, and we'll leave it at that. It's a very interesting idea, I have to say."

By "interesting" idea, I keep imagining that the story involves King Leonidas being resurrected by a necromancer to fight an unspeakable evil. (That's actually going to be written into a spec, I just know it.) But honestly, it really must suck to be Butler sometimes. He's got his own production shingle, he's going to be directed by Frank Darabont any day now, and everyone just wants to know when Leonidas is going to be resurrected by a necromancer.

Why doesn't anyone direct the question to Frank Miller? He's supposed to be the one writing it.

(Thanks to MoviesOnline for their transcript of the RocknRolla junket -- I still curse my tape recorder.)

Earlier today, you saw the trailer for one of the most anticipated adaptations of all time (no, not that one, this one). And it was amazing. Well, I thought so, anyway, and I'm one of the few people who said "ehh" after reading the graphic novel. Anyway, some of you bigger fans probably watched the new Watchmen trailer over and over and over again, forward and backward, in slow-motion and sped-up to compare the film with the panels in the book. But did you notice the odd lack of continuity in the sequence shown above? Unless you read MTV Movies Blog, or unless you were looking really hard for something like last year's 300 trailer surprise, there's a good chance you missed it. Fortunately, for you, I've done my best to highlight the anomaly after the jump.

...and by SEs I mean big, fat, loaded mega-special editions of the studio's most popular stuff. And when WB delivers a Special Edition, they generally don't mess around. (Unlike some home video distributors *koff Universal* who throw the SE term around willy-nilly.) Just a quick scan through my mega-awesome DVD collection reveals WB SEs like Goodfellas, Dirty Harry, Amadeus, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Superman, and a whole bunch more. If there's a catalog title you love, you should pray it gets the WB 2-disc SE treatment.

And a bunch more are on the way! According to Video Business, WB plans to double its SE output moving forward, and while we don't have any specs just yet, we do know that the following titles will be available (in fancy form) later this year: 300 (yes already, even though I thought the first 2-discer was pretty damn excellent), Casablanca (also again, but if any film deserves it...), A Christmas Story (cool!), JFK (a movie I need to see again), and I Am Legend. Come to think of it, all five of these movies already have Special Edition releases! These new discs better be pretty dang impressive.

Also on the way: The Peanuts Complete Holiday Collection. Which I definitely will own.